Subrogation and How It Affects Policyholders

Subrogation is an idea that's well-known in legal and insurance circles but rarely by the policyholders they represent. Even if it sounds complicated, it would be in your self-interest to know an overview of the process. The more information you have, the more likely an insurance lawsuit will work out in your favor.

Any insurance policy you have is an assurance that, if something bad happens to you, the company that insures the policy will make restitutions in one way or another without unreasonable delay. If you get injured while you're on the clock, your employer's workers compensation insurance pays out for medical services. Employment lawyers handle the details; you just get fixed up.

But since ascertaining who is financially accountable for services or repairs is often a tedious, lengthy affair – and delay often compounds the damage to the victim – insurance firms usually opt to pay up front and assign blame afterward. They then need a path to regain the costs if, when all is said and done, they weren't actually in charge of the payout.

For Example

Your stove catches fire and causes $10,000 in house damages. Happily, you have property insurance and it takes care of the repair expenses. However, the insurance investigator finds out that an electrician had installed some faulty wiring, and there is a reasonable possibility that a judge would find him responsible for the loss. You already have your money, but your insurance agency is out all that money. What does the agency do next?

How Does Subrogation Work?

This is where subrogation comes in. It is the method that an insurance company uses to claim reimbursement after it has paid for something that should have been paid by some other entity. 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. Normally, only you can sue for damages done to your person or property. But under subrogation law, your insurance company is given some of your rights in exchange for having taken care of the damages. It can go after the money originally due to you, because it has covered the amount already.

How Does This Affect Me?

For a start, if your insurance policy stipulated a deductible, your insurance company wasn't the only one that 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 get back its expenses by ballooning your premiums. On the other hand, if it knows which cases it is owed and pursues them aggressively, it is doing you a favor as well as itself. If all is recovered, you will get your full $1,000 deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found 50 percent accountable), you'll typically get half your deductible back, based on the laws in most states.

In addition, if the total price 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 workmans comp Dunwoody, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your losses as well as its own.

All insurers are not the same. When shopping around, it's worth looking at the reputations of competing agencies to find out whether they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they resolve those claims without dragging their feet; if they keep their accountholders informed as the case proceeds; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements quickly so that you can get your money back and move on with your life. If, instead, an insurance company has a reputation of honoring claims that aren't its responsibility and then covering its profitability by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.