Subrogation and How It Affects You

Subrogation is a term that's understood in legal and insurance circles but rarely by the customers they represent. Even if you've never heard the word before, it is in your benefit to understand the nuances of the process. The more information you have about it, the better decisions you can make with regard to your insurance policy.

Any insurance policy you own is a commitment that, if something bad occurs, the firm on the other end of the policy will make good without unreasonable delay. If your property is broken into, your property insurance agrees to pay you or pay for the repairs, subject to state property damage laws.

But since ascertaining who is financially responsible for services or repairs is regularly a heavily involved affair a€" and delay often compounds the damage to the victim a€" insurance firms often opt to pay up front and figure out the blame afterward. They then need a mechanism to regain the costs if, when all the facts are laid out, they weren't actually in charge of the payout.

Can You Give an Example?

Your bedroom catches fire and causes $10,000 in home damages. Fortunately, you have property insurance and it pays for the repairs. 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 to blame for the loss. 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 process that an insurance company uses to claim reimbursement after it has paid for something that should have been paid by some other entity. Some insurance firms 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 given 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 one thing, if you have 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 a€" namely, $1,000. If your insurer is unconcerned with pursuing subrogation even when it is entitled, it might choose to get back its costs by raising your premiums. On the other hand, if it has a proficient legal team and goes after those cases enthusiastically, it is doing you a favor as well as itself. If all ten grand is recovered, you will get your full $1,000 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, depending on the laws in your state.

Furthermore, if the total expense of an accident is more than your maximum coverage amount, you may have had to pay the difference. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as worker competition terms Cummings GA, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your losses in addition to its own.

All insurance companies are not created equal. When shopping around, it's worth examining the reputations of competing firms to determine if they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they resolve those claims in a reasonable amount of time; if they keep their customers updated as the case continues; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements right away so that you can get your deductible 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 protecting its profitability by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.