After the Accident I Can’t Have Sex With My Wife/Husband, or Have It as Often
If you’re injured by the negligence of another the law recognizes your right to recover. What if you are married, and your injury affects the nature and quality of your relationship with your spouse? What if, after an accident, you can’t have sex with your spouse. Attorney Eric T. Kirk says as for your medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering, an experienced Baltimore personal injury lawyer can advise you when, and if damages for this type of injury are recoverable. But that is not the extent of potential recovery in an appropriate case.
“The law recognizes the ways an accident can damage a marriage.”
Loss of Consortium “…means the loss of society, affection, assistance and conjugal fellowship. It includes the loss or impairment of sexual relations.” Deems v. Western Maryland Ry. Co., 231 A.2d 514, 247 Md. 95 (Md., 1967). A lot of people will tell you this claim only concerns the lost or diminished ability to have sex.
That’s part of it, to be sure, but there are more components to the loss as well. “[T]he two aspects of a claim for loss of consortium have been described as the economic “loss of services that … [have been performed] though they are of a type that can be rendered by hired help,” in contrast to the noneconomic “loss of household and other services that are of such a character that they cannot be rendered by hired help and on which, by reason of their character, no market value can be placed.” [citations omitted] The noneconomic component of a claim for loss of consortium has also been described as “intangible elements [that] are generally described in terms of ‘affection, society, companionship and sexual relations.’ ” [citations omitted]. Connors v. Oaks, 642 A.2d 245, 100 Md.App. 525 (Md. App., 1993).
One spouse cannot bring the claim separately. “When either husband or wife claims loss of consortium by reason of physical injuries sustained by the other as the result of the alleged negligence of the defendant, that claim can only be asserted in a joint action for injury to the marital relationship. That action is to be tried at the same time as the individual action of the physically injured spouse.” Deems.
A loss-of-consortium claim compensates a spouse for the injury’s impact on the relationship—companionship, affection, intimacy, shared activities, and household services. While the spouse provides crucial lay testimony about changes at home, medical testimony is typically what ties the underlying bodily/psychological injuries to those specific marital losses “to a reasonable degree of medical probability.” Expect a mix of treating clinicians and, sometimes, retained experts. In an appropriate case, you may hear from:
How to Prove a Loss of Consortium Claim in Baltimore Personal Injury Trial
- Treating physicians may testify
Orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, trauma surgeons, or primary-care physicians explain diagnosis, mechanism of injury, and functional limitations (pain with prolonged sitting/standing, lifting limits, range-of-motion loss). They address permanency, prognosis, and flare-ups. Importantly, they connect symptoms to day-to-day effects—fatigue, pain spikes, sleep disruption—that diminish the injured spouse’s ability to socialize, travel, attend family events, or engage in intimacy. They also explain medication side effects (sedation, dizziness, sexual side effects) that plausibly reduce libido or tolerance for activity.
- Pain management and rehabilitation clinicians may supplement
Pain specialists, physiatrists, and anesthesiologists speak to chronic pain syndromes, injections, ablative procedures, and multimodal regimens. Physical and occupational therapists contribute functional testing (e.g., lifting/carrying tolerances, stair management) and activities-of-daily-living assessments. Their notes often quantify task substitutions—how chores, childcare, and recreational activities have shifted to the uninjured spouse-corroborating those vital details that can make or break a claim.
- Specialists relevant to sexual function/gynecologic or urologic health.
This is where things can get highly personal. Where intimacy is implicated, a urologist, gynecologist, pelvic-floor specialist, or endocrinologist may testify about dyspareunia, erectile dysfunction, hormonal factors, pelvic neuropathies, or post-surgical sequelae. They can differentiate preexisting issues from post-injury problems and address whether pain, scar tissue, medications (e.g., SSRIs, opioids, beta-blockers), or neurological impairment explains the reported sexual difficulties. Their role is may be pivotal in corroborating the spouse’s account without invading unnecessary privacy.
Clinicians typically rely on medical records, imaging, therapy notes, validated questionnaires (pain inventories, sleep scales), and, where appropriate, sexual-function instruments. The best experts translate clinical jargon into relationship effects: How do pain levels and meds at day’s end affect conversation, parenting, and physical affection? What activities the couple once did together are now off the table? Their impact is not to monetize love but to medically ground why companionship, intimacy, and shared services have measurably changed. - Vocational experts and life-care planners
While not strictly medical, they synthesize clinical restrictions into concrete consequences: inability to perform heavy housework, need for assistive devices, paid help, or schedule accommodations. That testimony helps a jury understand the increased household burden on the uninjured spouse and the longevity of those changes
- Defense IME testimony. The step you cannot avoid.
Expect a defense-retained physician to challenge causation, permanency, and sexual-function claims. These experts are unlikely to claim you are lying, but are more likely to point to aging, comorbidities, preexisting degeneration, or unrelated mental-health factors.
Consortium claims are textured and nuanced. Each is as different as one marriage is to another. It is important to consult with a seasoned personal injury attorney early in the process, to begin laying a foundation for the consortium claim.
- Baltimore Personal Injury Trial Lawyer Eric T. Kirk
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- Baltimore Insurance Claims Denial Lawyer
For over three decades, I have battled against the nation’s largest insurance companies, always endeavoring to ensure my clients receive the compensation they deserve. As lead counsel in thousands of cases across Maryland, New York, and Florida, I have recovered millions for clients whose claims were wrongfully denied and delayed. Whether denying fair compensation for a personal injury victim or denying benefits to a homeowner, Insurance companies employ policy exclusions, technicalities, and lowball offers to deny and defeat claims. They also hire very good lawyers to fight you in court. So should you. When an insurance company unfairly rejects a claim, I stop them.
