Subrogation is a concept that's well-known among legal and insurance companies but rarely by the policyholders who employ them. If this term has come up when dealing with your insurance agent or a legal proceeding, it would be to your advantage to know the steps of the process. The more knowledgeable you are, the more likely it is that relevant proceedings will work out in your favor.
Every insurance policy you have is an assurance that, if something bad happens to you, the insurer of the policy will make restitutions in one way or another in a timely fashion. If your home is broken into, for example, your property insurance agrees to repay you or pay for the repairs, subject to state property damage laws.
But since ascertaining who is financially accountable for services or repairs is typically a heavily involved affair a€" and delay often increases the damage to the victim a€" insurance companies in many cases opt to pay up front and assign blame later. They then need a way to recoup the costs if, in the end, they weren't actually in charge of the expense.
Can You Give an Example?
Your living room catches fire and causes $10,000 in home damages. Luckily, 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 reasonable possibility that a judge would find him to blame for the loss. The home has already been repaired in the name of expediency, but your insurance company is out $10,000. 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 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 insurance company is given some of your rights in exchange 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 Should I Care?
For starters, if you have a deductible, your insurance company 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€" to be precise, $1,000. If your insurance company is unconcerned with pursuing subrogation even when it is entitled, it might opt to recoup its expenses by boosting your premiums and call it a day. On the other hand, if it has a competent legal team and goes after them enthusiastically, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all of the money is recovered, you will get your full deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found 50 percent culpable), you'll typically get $500 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. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as divorce lawyer utah county, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your expenses as well as its own.
All insurers are not the same. When comparing, it's worth looking at the records of competing companies to determine whether they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they do so quickly; if they keep their clients apprised 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, instead, an insurance company has a reputation of honoring claims that aren't its responsibility and then covering its income by raising your premiums, even attractive rates won't outweigh the eventual headache.