Subrogation is an idea that's understood in insurance and legal circles but sometimes not by the customers who hire them. Even if it sounds complicated, it is to your advantage to know an overview of the process. The more knowledgeable you are about it, the more likely relevant proceedings will work out favorably.
Any insurance policy you own is a promise that, if something bad happens to you, the firm on the other end of the policy will make restitutions without unreasonable delay. If your property suffers fire damage, for instance, your property insurance steps in to compensate you or enable the repairs, subject to state property damage laws.
But since determining who is financially responsible for services or repairs is often a confusing affair – and time spent waiting in some cases increases the damage to the victim – insurance firms in many cases decide to pay up front and figure out the blame after the fact. They then need a path to recover the costs if, ultimately, they weren't in charge of the payout.
Can You Give an Example?
Your electric outlet catches fire and causes $10,000 in house damages. Happily, you have property insurance and it takes care of the repair expenses. However, in its investigation it finds out that an electrician had installed some faulty wiring, and there is reason to believe that a judge would find him to blame for the damages. You already have your money, but your insurance firm is out $10,000. What does the firm do next?
How Subrogation Works
This is where subrogation comes in. It is the method that an insurance company uses to claim reimbursement when it pays out a claim that turned out not to be its responsibility. 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 done to your self or property. But under subrogation law, your insurance company is extended 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.
How Does This Affect the Insured?
For starters, if you have a deductible, it wasn't just your insurance company 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 insurer is timid on any subrogation case it might not win, it might choose to get back its expenses by increasing your premiums. On the other hand, if it knows which cases it is owed and pursues them aggressively, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. 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 one-half culpable), you'll typically get half your deductible back, based on the laws in most states.
Moreover, if the total price 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 medical malpractice attorney Mclean Va, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your costs as well as its own.
All insurance companies are not created equal. When shopping around, it's worth examining the reputations of competing agencies to find out if they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they resolve those claims with some expediency; if they keep their clients advised as the case proceeds; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements quickly so that you can get your losses back and move on with your life. If, on the other hand, an insurer has a record of paying out claims that aren't its responsibility and then covering its income by raising your premiums, even attractive rates won't outweigh the eventual headache.