Short answer: If your husband or wife is seriously and permanently injured because of someone else’s negligence, Utah law lets you bring your own claim for loss of consortium against the person who caused the injury. The injury must substantially change your spouse’s lifestyle, your claim must be brought together with your spouse’s claim, and it is reduced or barred by the same defenses that apply to your spouse’s case.
A serious injury rarely happens to just one person. When one spouse can no longer work the same way, help run the household, or share the life the couple had before, the other spouse loses something real too. Utah treats that loss as a separate claim, but it comes with strict rules. Here is how the statute works and what the Utah Supreme Court has said about it.
What Utah’s Loss of Consortium Statute Says
Utah’s consortium law is now Utah Code § 81-3-111, effective September 1, 2024. For years it was Utah Code § 30-2-11. The Legislature renumbered it in 2024 as part of the new Title 81 domestic relations code, so older decisions cite the old number.
The statute says that the spouse of an individual injured by a third party on or after May 4, 1997, may sue that third party to recover for loss of consortium. Two definitions control who qualifies:
- Spouse. The claim belongs to a spouse in a legal relationship recognized by Utah law that existed at the time of the injury. A couple who marries after the injury does not qualify.
- Injury. The injured spouse must have suffered “a significant permanent injury” that “substantially changes” his or her lifestyle.
The Injury Must Be Significant, Permanent, and Life-Changing
Section 81-3-111 defines a qualifying injury as a significant permanent injury that substantially changes the injured person’s lifestyle, “including”:
- partial or complete paralysis of one or more of the extremities;
- significant disfigurement; or
- being unable to perform the types of jobs the person performed before the injury.
Insurers sometimes argue that a spouse has no claim unless the injury fits one of those three items. The Utah Supreme Court rejected that argument in Boyle v. Christensen, 2011 UT 20. A truck hit Mr. Boyle while he was walking in a crosswalk. He needed back surgery, lost his job, and lived with chronic pain that kept him from sleeping through the night, working an eight-hour day, or doing parts of his old work. The trial court dismissed his wife’s consortium claim, and both sides had treated the three listed injuries as the only ones that count.
The Supreme Court reversed. It held that the listed injuries are examples, not an exclusive list. The real test is whether there was a significant permanent injury that substantially changed the injured spouse’s lifestyle. The court pointed out that reading the list as exclusive could leave no remedy for the loss of sexual relations between spouses. It also said the lower courts had read the job example too narrowly: being unable to do an essential part of a job in a routine way may be enough, and working in the same industry does not necessarily mean doing the same type of job. Because the defense had conceded there were factual disputes about whether the injury substantially changed Mr. Boyle’s lifestyle, the court ordered his wife’s claim reinstated.
An injury that heals completely usually will not meet this standard, because the statute requires a permanent injury. Qualifying claims tend to involve life-altering harm, such as spinal cord or brain injuries, amputations, severe burns, or lasting orthopedic damage. Our guide to catastrophic injury claims in Utah covers these cases in more detail.
Your Claim Rides With Your Spouse’s Case
The claim is yours, but the statute ties it closely to your spouse’s case:
- It must be joined. The claim must be made at the same time as the injured spouse’s claim, and the statute makes joinder compulsory.
- It is derivative. It comes from the injured spouse’s cause of action and does not exist if the injured spouse would have no case.
- The same defenses apply. It is subject to the same defenses, limitations, and immunities as the injured spouse’s claim.
- Fault counts against it. The fault of the injured spouse, and of the consortium spouse, is compared with everyone else’s fault under Utah’s comparative negligence statutes to reduce or bar the recovery. If the uninjured spouse was the driver and shares some blame, that counts too.
- The deadline is the same. The claim begins on the date of the injury, and the statute of limitations that applies to the injured spouse also applies to the consortium claim. See our page on the Utah personal injury statute of limitations. A claim against a government entity requires a notice of claim within one year, and most medical malpractice suits must be filed within two years after the injury is discovered.
The practical lesson is to bring both spouses into the claim from the start. An insurer may ask both spouses to sign the settlement release, as the insurer did in the Ewart case discussed below. Do not sign a release until you understand whether it ends your own claim.
What Loss of Consortium Looks Like and How to Show It
Consortium refers to the benefits of the marriage relationship that an injury takes away. That often includes companionship, affection, intimacy, help running the home, and the shared life the couple had. The Boyle court specifically mentioned loss of sexual relations. In the Ewart case, the wife described her claim as a loss of financial support. Useful evidence often includes:
- before-and-after accounts from both spouses about daily routines;
- household roles the injured spouse can no longer fill, such as yard work, finances, or child care, and who took them over;
- caregiving the uninjured spouse now provides, such as help with bathing, dressing, medications, and rides to appointments;
- activities the couple gave up, such as travel, church, sports, or time with friends, shown through photos and calendars;
- changes in intimacy and emotional closeness;
- medical records showing the injury is permanent, including work restrictions and impairment ratings; and
- statements from family, friends, or coworkers who saw the change.
This is the spouse’s own loss, separate from the injured spouse’s pain and suffering damages. But the statute says the consortium award, combined with the injured spouse’s general damages, cannot exceed any statutory cap on noneconomic damages, such as the cap in medical malpractice cases.
How Insurance Limits Affect a Consortium Claim
In Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. v. Ewart, 2007 UT 52, a husband was hurt in a car crash. The at-fault driver had $25,000 per person in liability coverage. The insurer offered the husband that $25,000 but refused to pay more for his wife’s consortium claim, and she argued Utah law required a separate limit for her.
In a 3–2 decision, the Utah Supreme Court disagreed. It held that Utah’s minimum liability limits are tied to the number of people who suffer a bodily injury, not the number of claims. Because the wife had no bodily injury of her own, her consortium claim fell within her husband’s single per-person limit. (The couple had conceded the policy itself put her claim under his limit; the question was whether Utah law required more. Two justices dissented.)
In practice, when the at-fault driver carries low limits, both spouses usually draw from the same per-person pool. Utah’s minimum for policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, is $30,000 per person, which is often far less than a serious injury is worth. That makes your own underinsured motorist coverage important, and the exact policy wording matters. When the defendant is a government entity, the statute also caps the combined award to both spouses at the per-person limit in Utah’s Governmental Immunity Act.
Loss of Consortium Is Different From Wrongful Death
Section 81-3-111 is for a spouse whose husband or wife survived a serious injury. When a negligent act causes a death, the claim generally belongs to the heirs or the personal representative under Utah’s wrongful-death statute, which allows damages that are “just” under all the circumstances. A surviving spouse’s losses are pursued through that claim. Our guide to wrongful death claims in Utah explains who can bring one and what it covers.
Talk to a Utah Injury Attorney
If your spouse was seriously hurt, your own claim has to be raised alongside your spouse’s case, before anyone signs a release. We can review whether the injury meets Utah’s threshold, which deadlines apply, and what insurance, including your own underinsured motorist coverage, may be available for both claims.
Hurt in Utah? Call (801) 921-5134 or send us your case for a free consultation. No attorney fees unless we win. Hablamos Español.