Subrogation is a concept that's understood in legal and insurance circles but sometimes not by the people who employ them. If this term has come up when dealing with your insurance agent or a legal proceeding, it is to your advantage to know the steps of how it works. The more you know, the more likely relevant proceedings will work out in your favor.
An insurance policy you own is a commitment that, if something bad happens to you, the insurer of the policy will make restitutions in a timely fashion. If a hailstorm damages your house, for instance, your property insurance steps in to pay you or facilitate the repairs, subject to state property damage laws.
But since determining who is financially responsible for services or repairs is sometimes a heavily involved affair – and time spent waiting sometimes compounds the damage to the policyholder – insurance firms in many cases decide to pay up front and figure out the blame afterward. They then need a way to recover the costs if, when there is time to look at all the facts, they weren't responsible for the payout.
Let's Look at an Example
You are in an auto accident. Another car collided with yours. Police are called, you exchange insurance information, and you go on your way. You have comprehensive insurance that pays for the repairs right away. Later it's determined that the other driver was entirely at fault and her insurance should have paid for the repair of your auto. How does your company get its money back?
How Does Subrogation Work?
This is where subrogation comes in. It is the method 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. Normally, only you can sue for damages done to your person 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 starters, if you have a deductible, your insurer wasn't the only one that had to pay. In a $10,000 accident with a $1,000 deductible, you have a stake in the outcome as well – 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 upping your premiums and call it a day. On the other hand, if it has a capable legal team and pursues those cases efficiently, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all ten grand is recovered, you will get your full $1,000 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 expense 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 real estate lawyer Lake Geneva, WI, pursue subrogation and succeeds, it will recover your losses in addition to its own.
All insurers are not the same. When shopping around, it's worth researching the records of competing firms to evaluate whether they pursue legitimate subrogation claims; if they do so with some expediency; if they keep their clients apprised as the case proceeds; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements quickly so that you can get your losses back and move on with your life. If, instead, an insurer has a reputation of paying out claims that aren't its responsibility and then covering its bottom line by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.