What You Need to Know About Subrogation
Subrogation is an idea that's understood among legal and insurance firms but rarely by the people who employ them. Even if it sounds complicated, it would be in your benefit to comprehend the steps of how it works. The more knowledgeable you are, the better decisions you can make about your insurance company.
Every insurance policy you have is a commitment that, if something bad occurs, the business on the other end of the policy will make restitutions without unreasonable delay. If you get hurt while you're on the clock, your employer's workers compensation insurance 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 often a confusing affair – and delay in some cases adds to the damage to the policyholder – insurance firms often decide to pay up front and figure out the blame afterward. They then need a mechanism to recoup the costs if, when there is time to look at all the facts, they weren't in charge of the expense.
For Example
Your electric outlet catches fire and causes $10,000 in house damages. Happily, you have property insurance and it pays out your claim in full. However, the assessor assigned to your case discovers that an electrician had installed some faulty wiring, and there is a decent chance that a judge would find him liable for the loss. You already have your money, but your insurance agency is out all that money. What does the agency do next?
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 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 self or property. But under subrogation law, your insurer is given 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 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 – to be precise, $1,000. If your insurer is unconcerned with pursuing subrogation even when it is entitled, it might opt to recover its costs by increasing your premiums and call it a day. On the other hand, if it has a knowledgeable legal team and pursues those cases enthusiastically, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all ten grand 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 half your deductible back, based on the laws in most states.
Furthermore, if the total loss of an accident is over your maximum coverage amount, you may have had to pay the difference, which can be extremely spendy. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as child custody lawyer Henderson Nv, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your losses in addition to its own.
All insurers are not the same. When comparing, it's worth contrasting 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 updated as the case continues; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements quickly so that you can get your funding back and move on with your life. If, on the other hand, an insurer has a reputation of paying out claims that aren't its responsibility and then safeguarding its bottom line by raising your premiums, even attractive rates won't outweigh the eventual headache.