The Things You Need to Know About Subrogation

Subrogation is an idea that's understood in insurance and legal circles but rarely by the people who hire them. Rather than leave it to the professionals, it would be to your advantage to know the nuances of the process. The more information you have about it, the more likely it is that an insurance lawsuit will work out favorably.

Every insurance policy you hold is a commitment that, if something bad happens to you, the business on the other end of the policy will make restitutions in one way or another without unreasonable delay. If you get an injury on the job, for example, your company's workers compensation insurance picks up the tab for medical services. Employment lawyers handle the details; you just get fixed up.

But since ascertaining who is financially responsible for services or repairs is usually a time-consuming affair – and delay often adds to the damage to the victim – insurance companies often decide to pay up front and assign blame later. They then need a method to recover the costs if, when there is time to look at all the facts, they weren't in charge of the expense.

For Example

You are in a car accident. Another car ran into yours. The police show up to assess the situation, you exchange insurance details, and you go on your way. You have comprehensive insurance that pays for the repairs right away. Later police tell the insurance companies that the other driver was entirely to blame and her insurance should have paid for the repair of your car. How does your company get its money back?

How Does Subrogation Work?

This is where subrogation comes in. It is the way that an insurance company uses to claim reimbursement when it pays out a claim that turned out not to be its responsibility. Some insurance firms have in-house property damage lawyers and personal injury attorneys, or a department dedicated to subrogation; others contract with a law firm. Ordinarily, only you can sue for damages to your self or property. But under subrogation law, your insurance company is considered to have some of your rights in exchange for making good on the damages. It can go after the money originally due to you, because it has covered the amount already.

Why Should I Care?

For one thing, if your insurance policy stipulated a deductible, it wasn't just your insurance company who had to pay. In a $10,000 accident with a $1,000 deductible, you lost some money too – namely, $1,000. If your insurance company is timid on any subrogation case it might not win, it might opt to recoup its losses by ballooning your premiums and call it a day. On the other hand, if it knows which cases it is owed and goes after them efficiently, it is doing you a favor as well as itself. If all of the money is recovered, you will get your full thousand-dollar deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found one-half accountable), you'll typically get $500 back, based on the laws in most states.

Furthermore, if the total expense of an accident is more than your maximum coverage amount, you could be in for a stiff bill. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as discrimination attorney 98466, pursue subrogation and wins, it will recover your losses in addition to its own.

All insurers are not the same. When shopping around, it's worth weighing the reputations of competing companies to determine whether they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they do so with some expediency; if they keep their accountholders informed as the case continues; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements immediately so that you can get your losses back and move on with your life. If, on the other hand, an insurance agency has a record of honoring claims that aren't its responsibility and then protecting its profit margin by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.