Subrogation is a concept that's understood among legal and insurance companies but often not by the people they represent. Rather than leave it to the professionals, it would be to your advantage to know an overview of how it works. The more knowledgeable you are about it, the more likely it is that relevant proceedings will work out in your favor.
An insurance policy you hold is a commitment that, if something bad happens to you, the firm that insures the policy will make restitutions without unreasonable delay. If you get hurt while working, for instance, your company's workers compensation picks up the tab for medical services. Employment lawyers handle the details; you just get fixed up.
But since figuring out who is financially responsible for services or repairs is regularly a confusing affair – and delay in some cases adds to the damage to the policyholder – insurance firms usually opt to pay up front and figure out the blame later. They then need a mechanism to recoup the costs if, when all is said and done, they weren't actually responsible for the expense.
For Example
Your garage catches fire and causes $10,000 in house damages. Happily, you have property insurance and it pays out your claim in full. However, the insurance investigator discovers that an electrician had installed some faulty wiring, and there is a decent chance that a judge would find him accountable for the damages. You already have your money, but your insurance company is out $10,000. 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 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. Ordinarily, only you can sue for damages to your person or property. But under subrogation law, your insurer 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.
How Does This Affect Me?
For one thing, if your insurance policy stipulated a deductible, your insurer 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 lax about bringing subrogation cases to court, it might opt to recover its losses by ballooning your premiums. On the other hand, if it has a capable legal team and pursues those cases enthusiastically, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all is recovered, you will get your full deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found one-half responsible), you'll typically get $500 back, depending on the laws in your state.
In addition, if the total price of an accident is over your maximum coverage amount, you could be in for a stiff bill. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as car accident attorney Tacoma WA, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your losses as well as its own.
All insurance companies are not the same. When shopping around, it's worth researching the records of competing agencies to evaluate whether they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they do so with some expediency; if they keep their clients advised as the case continues; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements right away so that you can get your money back and move on with your life. If, instead, an insurer has a record of honoring claims that aren't its responsibility and then protecting its bottom line by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.