What You Need to Know About Subrogation
Subrogation is an idea that's understood among legal and insurance firms but rarely by the policyholders who hire them. Rather than leave it to the professionals, it is to your advantage to comprehend an overview of how it works. The more information you have, the better decisions you can make about your insurance company.
An insurance policy you hold is a commitment that, if something bad occurs, the firm that covers the policy will make restitutions in one way or another without unreasonable delay. If you get an injury on the job, for instance, your company's workers compensation picks up the tab for medical services. Employment lawyers handle the details; you just get fixed up.
But since determining who is financially responsible for services or repairs is regularly a confusing affair – and time spent waiting often increases the damage to the victim – insurance companies usually decide to pay up front and assign blame afterward. They then need a means to regain the costs if, when there is time to look at all the facts, they weren't actually responsible for the payout.
For Example
Your living room catches fire and causes $10,000 in home damages. Fortunately, you have property insurance and it pays out your claim in full. However, in its investigation it finds out that an electrician had installed some faulty wiring, and there is a reasonable possibility that a judge would find him to blame for the damages. You already have your money, but your insurance company is out ten grand. What does the company do next?
How Subrogation Works
This is where subrogation comes in. It is the method 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 insurer is considered to have some of your rights for having taken care of the damages. It can go after the money originally due to you, because it has covered the amount already.
Why Does This Matter to Me?
For a start, if your insurance policy stipulated a deductible, your insurer wasn't the only one who 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 unconcerned with pursuing subrogation even when it is entitled, it might choose to recover its expenses by increasing your premiums and call it a day. On the other hand, if it has a proficient legal team and goes after those cases efficiently, it is doing you a favor as well as itself. 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 culpable), you'll typically get $500 back, depending on your state laws.
In addition, if the total cost 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 car accident lawyer Powder Springs, Ga, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your expenses as well as its own.
All insurers are not created equal. When comparing, it's worth contrasting the reputations of competing companies to determine whether they pursue valid subrogation claims; if they do so quickly; if they keep their policyholders apprised 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, instead, an insurance company has a record of honoring claims that aren't its responsibility and then safeguarding its profit margin by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.