Subrogation is an idea that's well-known in insurance and legal circles but sometimes not by the customers who hire them. Rather than leave it to the professionals, it would be in your self-interest to know the steps of how it works. The more you know about it, the better decisions you can make about your insurance policy.
An insurance policy you hold is a commitment that, if something bad occurs, the firm that insures the policy will make restitutions in a timely fashion. If you get hurt while working, your company's workers compensation pays out 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 typically a time-consuming affair – and time spent waiting in some cases adds to the damage to the policyholder – insurance companies in many cases opt to pay up front and assign blame after the fact. They then need a way to recover the costs if, once the situation is fully assessed, they weren't actually in charge of the payout.
For Example
Your kitchen catches fire and causes $10,000 in home damages. Luckily, you have property insurance and it takes care of the repair expenses. However, in its investigation it finds out 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 agency is out ten grand. What does the agency do next?
How Does Subrogation Work?
This is where subrogation comes in. It is the way that an insurance company uses to claim reimbursement 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 to your person or property. But under subrogation law, your insurer is extended some of your rights for making good on 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 Me?
For starters, if you have a deductible, it wasn't just your insurer who 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 choose to recoup its losses by raising your premiums. On the other hand, if it knows which cases it is owed and goes after those cases efficiently, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all of the money is recovered, you will get your full thousand-dollar deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found one-half accountable), you'll typically get half your deductible back, depending on the laws in your state.
Additionally, if the total expense 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 real estate lawyer Williams Bay, WI, pursue subrogation and succeeds, it will recover your expenses in addition to its own.
All insurance agencies are not created equal. When comparing, it's worth looking at the reputations of competing companies to find out whether they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they resolve those claims in a reasonable amount of time; if they keep their policyholders apprised as the case goes on; 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 paying out claims that aren't its responsibility and then protecting its profitability by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.