Subrogation is a concept that's understood in legal and insurance circles but rarely by the policyholders they represent. Even if you've never heard the word before, it would be in your benefit to comprehend the steps of the process. The more you know, the more likely an insurance lawsuit will work out in your favor.
Any insurance policy you own is a commitment that, if something bad occurs, the insurer of the policy will make good in a timely fashion. If you get hurt while you're on the clock, your company's workers compensation insurance agrees to pay 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 sometimes a heavily involved affair – and delay sometimes compounds the damage to the victim – insurance companies in many cases decide to pay up front and assign blame later. They then need a mechanism to recoup the costs if, when there is time to look at all the facts, they weren't actually in charge of the payout.
Can You Give an Example?
Your bedroom catches fire and causes $10,000 in home damages. Happily, you have property insurance and it pays out your claim in full. However, the assessor assigned to your case discovers that an electrician had installed some faulty wiring, and there is a reasonable possibility that a judge would find him responsible for the damages. The home has already been fixed up in the name of expediency, but your insurance company is out ten grand. What does the company do next?
How Does Subrogation Work?
This is where subrogation comes in. It is the way that an insurance company uses to claim payment when it pays out a claim that turned out not to be its responsibility. Some companies 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 insurer is extended some of your rights in exchange for having taken care of the damages. It can go after the money that was originally due to you, because it has covered the amount already.
How Does This Affect Individuals?
For a start, if you have a deductible, it wasn't just your insurer that had to pay. In a $10,000 accident with a $1,000 deductible, you lost some money too – to be precise, $1,000. If your insurer is timid on any subrogation case it might not win, it might choose to get back its expenses by increasing your premiums and call it a day. On the other hand, if it has a competent legal team and pursues them efficiently, it is doing you a favor as well as itself. If all ten grand is recovered, you will get your full deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found one-half at fault), you'll typically get $500 back, based on the laws in most states.
In addition, if the total cost of an accident is over your maximum coverage amount, you may have had to pay the difference, which can be extremely costly. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as legal representation Lacey, WA, pursue subrogation and wins, it will recover your expenses in addition to its own.
All insurance agencies are not created equal. When comparing, it's worth contrasting the records of competing agencies to evaluate if they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they resolve those claims quickly; if they keep their customers posted as the case continues; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements quickly so that you can get your funding back and move on with your life. If, on the other hand, an insurer has a reputation of honoring claims that aren't its responsibility and then protecting its profitability by raising your premiums, you should keep looking.