The Things You Need to Know About Subrogation

Subrogation is an idea that's understood among insurance and legal professionals but sometimes not by the people they represent. If this term has come up when dealing with your insurance agent or a legal proceeding, it would be to your advantage to know an overview of the process. 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 covers the policy will make restitutions in a timely fashion. If your vehicle is in a fender-bender, insurance adjusters (and the courts, when necessary) determine who was to blame and that person's insurance pays out.

But since figuring out who is financially responsible for services or repairs is typically a heavily involved affair – and delay often adds to the damage to the victim – insurance firms usually decide to pay up front and assign blame after the fact. They then need a means to recoup the costs if, when all is said and done, they weren't in charge of the payout.

Let's Look at an Example

You rush into the hospital with a sliced-open finger. You give the receptionist your health insurance card and she writes down your plan details. You get stitched up and your insurance company gets a bill for the expenses. But the next day, when you clock in at work – where the accident occurred – you are given workers compensation forms to file. Your employer's workers comp policy is in fact responsible for the expenses, not your health insurance. It has a vested interest in getting that money back somehow.

How Subrogation Works

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 companies have in-house property damage lawyers and personal injury attorneys, or a department dedicated to subrogation; others contract with a law firm. Usually, only you can sue for damages to your person or property. But under subrogation law, your insurance company is extended some of your rights 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 the Insured?

For starters, if you have a deductible, your insurance company wasn't the only one who had to pay. In a $10,000 accident with a $1,000 deductible, you lost some money too – to be precise, $1,000. If your insurance company is lax about bringing subrogation cases to court, it might choose to recoup its losses by upping your premiums. On the other hand, if it has a competent legal team and goes after them aggressively, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all $10,000 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 $500 back, depending on your state laws.

In addition, if the total loss 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 personal injury attorney Tacoma WA, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your costs as well as its own.

All insurers are not created equal. When shopping around, it's worth looking up the records of competing firms to determine whether they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they resolve those claims without dragging their feet; if they keep their customers advised 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, on the other hand, an insurance firm has a record of paying out claims that aren't its responsibility and then protecting its profit margin by raising your premiums, even attractive rates won't outweigh the eventual headache.