Subrogation is a concept that's understood in insurance and legal circles but rarely by the policyholders they represent. Even if it sounds complicated, it would be in your self-interest to understand the nuances of the process. The more information you have about it, the more likely relevant proceedings will work out favorably.
Every insurance policy you own is a promise that, if something bad happens to you, the company that insures the policy will make good in one way or another without unreasonable delay. If your property is burglarized, for instance, your property insurance agrees to pay you or pay for the repairs, subject to state property damage laws.
But since ascertaining who is financially accountable for services or repairs is usually a time-consuming affair – and delay often increases the damage to the policyholder – insurance companies usually opt to pay up front and assign blame after the fact. They then need a way to recoup the costs if, in the end, they weren't actually responsible for the payout.
Let's Look at an Example
Your bedroom catches fire and causes $10,000 in home damages. Happily, you have property insurance and it pays for the repairs. However, the insurance investigator 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 firm is out all that money. What does the firm do next?
How Does Subrogation Work?
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 done to your self or property. But under subrogation law, your insurer is given some of your rights 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 a start, if your insurance policy stipulated a deductible, it wasn't just your insurer who had to pay. In a $10,000 accident with a $1,000 deductible, you have a stake in the outcome as well – to be precise, $1,000. If your insurer is lax about bringing subrogation cases to court, it might choose to recoup its expenses by boosting your premiums. On the other hand, if it knows which cases it is owed and pursues those cases enthusiastically, it is doing you a favor as well as itself. 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 responsible), you'll typically get half your deductible back, based on the laws in most states.
Moreover, if the total cost of an accident is more than your maximum coverage amount, you may have had to pay the difference, which can be extremely costly. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as family law lawyer Vancouver WA, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your costs in addition to its own.
All insurers are not the same. When comparing, it's worth researching the reputations of competing companies to determine whether they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they do so fast; if they keep their clients informed as the case proceeds; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements right away so that you can get your losses back and move on with your life. If, instead, an insurance agency has a record of paying out claims that aren't its responsibility and then safeguarding its profit margin by raising your premiums, even attractive rates won't outweigh the eventual headache.