Subrogation is an idea that's well-known in legal and insurance circles but rarely by the customers who employ them. Even if it sounds complicated, it would be in your self-interest to understand the steps of how it works. The more knowledgeable you are, the more likely relevant proceedings will work out in your favor.

An insurance policy you hold is a promise that, if something bad occurs, the company on the other end of the policy will make restitutions in one way or another in a timely fashion. If you get injured at work, for instance, your company's workers compensation insurance agrees to pay for medical services. Employment lawyers handle the details; you just get fixed up.

But since ascertaining who is financially accountable for services or repairs is typically a heavily involved affair – and delay often compounds the damage to the victim – insurance companies in many cases opt to pay up front and figure out the blame later. They then need a path to recover the costs if, once the situation is fully assessed, they weren't actually in charge of the expense.

For Example

Your garage catches fire and causes $10,000 in house damages. Luckily, you have property insurance and it pays out your claim in full. However, the assessor assigned to your case discovers that an electrician had installed some faulty wiring, and there is a reasonable possibility that a judge would find him responsible for the loss. You already have your money, but your insurance agency is out ten grand. What does the agency do next?

How Subrogation Works

This is where subrogation comes in. It is the process that an insurance company uses to claim payment 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. Ordinarily, only you can sue for damages done to your person or property. But under subrogation law, your insurer is given some of your rights for making good on 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 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 – namely, $1,000. If your insurer is lax about bringing subrogation cases to court, it might choose to recoup its losses by upping your premiums and call it a day. On the other hand, if it knows which cases it is owed and goes after those cases enthusiastically, it is doing you a favor as well as itself. If all of the money is recovered, you will get your full thousand-dollar deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found one-half culpable), you'll typically get $500 back, based on the laws in most states.

Additionally, if the total price of an accident is over your maximum coverage amount, you may have had to pay the difference, which can be extremely expensive. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as immigration defense attorney Sandy Ut, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your costs in addition to its own.

All insurance companies are not the same. When shopping around, it's worth comparing the records of competing firms to find out whether they pursue legitimate subrogation claims; if they resolve those claims without dragging their feet; if they keep their account holders advised as the case continues; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements immediately so that you can get your deductible back and move on with your life. If, on the other hand, an insurer has a record of honoring claims that aren't its responsibility and then covering its profitability by raising your premiums, even attractive rates won't outweigh the eventual headache.