Subrogation is a concept that's understood among insurance and legal professionals but often not by the people they represent. Rather than leave it to the professionals, it would be to your advantage to understand the nuances of how it works. The more information you have, the more likely it is that an insurance lawsuit will work out favorably.
Any insurance policy you have is a promise that, if something bad happens to you, the insurer of the policy will make good in one way or another without unreasonable delay. If your vehicle is rear-ended, insurance adjusters (and the judicial system, when necessary) determine who was to blame and that person's insurance covers the damages.
But since ascertaining who is financially responsible for services or repairs is sometimes a time-consuming affair – and delay often compounds the damage to the policyholder – insurance firms usually decide to pay up front and assign blame later. They then need a way to get back the costs if, when there is time to look at all the facts, they weren't in charge of the expense.
For Example
You arrive at the emergency room with a gouged finger. You hand the receptionist your health insurance card and he records your coverage information. You get taken care of and your insurance company gets an invoice for the services. But on the following day, when you clock in at work – where the accident happened – you are given workers compensation paperwork to fill out. Your workers comp policy is in fact responsible for the invoice, not your health insurance company. The latter has an interest in recovering its money somehow.
How Subrogation Works
This is where subrogation comes in. It is the process that an insurance company uses to claim payment 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. Normally, only you can sue for damages done to your person or property. But under subrogation law, your insurance company 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.
Why Does This Matter to Me?
For starters, if your insurance policy stipulated a deductible, it wasn't just your insurance company that had to pay. In a $10,000 accident with a $1,000 deductible, you lost some money too – to the tune of $1,000. If your insurer is unconcerned with pursuing subrogation even when it is entitled, it might opt to get back its losses by raising your premiums. On the other hand, if it has a capable legal team and pursues them aggressively, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. 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 at fault), you'll typically get half your deductible back, based on the laws in most states.
In addition, if the total loss of an accident is more than your maximum coverage amount, you may have had to pay the difference, which can be extremely expensive. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as personal injury lawyer Tacoma Wa, pursue subrogation and succeeds, it will recover your losses in addition to its own.
All insurance agencies are not the same. When comparing, it's worth measuring the reputations of competing companies to find out if they pursue valid subrogation claims; if they resolve those claims with some expediency; if they keep their clients advised as the case continues; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements quickly so that you can get your deductible 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 safeguarding its profit margin by raising your premiums, you should keep looking.