Subrogation is an idea that's understood among insurance and legal firms but sometimes not by the people they represent. Even if you've never heard the word before, it is in your self-interest to know the steps of how it works. The more information you have about it, the more likely an insurance lawsuit will work out in your favor.

Any insurance policy you own is a commitment that, if something bad happens to you, the business that covers the policy will make good in one way or another in a timely manner. If your vehicle is hit, insurance adjusters (and police, when necessary) decide who was at fault and that party's insurance covers the damages.

But since determining who is financially accountable for services or repairs is sometimes a heavily involved affair – and time spent waiting often compounds the damage to the victim – insurance firms often decide to pay up front and figure out the blame after the fact. They then need a method to recoup the costs if, when there is time to look at all the facts, they weren't responsible for the expense.

Let's Look at an Example

You arrive at the Instacare with a sliced-open finger. You hand the receptionist your medical insurance card and she takes down your policy details. You get taken care of and your insurance company gets an invoice for the expenses. But the next day, when you arrive at your workplace – where the injury happened – you are given workers compensation paperwork to turn in. Your employer's workers comp policy is in fact responsible for the bill, not your medical insurance company. It has a vested interest in getting that money back in some way.

How Subrogation Works

This is where subrogation comes in. It is the way 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. Ordinarily, only you can sue for damages done to your self or property. But under subrogation law, your insurance company 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 Me?

For starters, if your insurance policy stipulated 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 insurance company is timid on any subrogation case it might not win, it might choose to recoup its costs by boosting your premiums and call it a day. On the other hand, if it knows which cases it is owed and pursues them efficiently, 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 responsible), you'll typically get half your deductible back, based on the laws in most states.

Moreover, if the total loss 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 Sumner Wa Car Accident Lawyer, pursue subrogation and wins, it will recover your expenses as well as its own.

All insurance companies are not the same. When comparing, it's worth measuring the reputations of competing agencies to find out if they pursue valid subrogation claims; if they do so without delay; if they keep their accountholders advised as the case proceeds; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements quickly so that you can get your money back and move on with your life. If, instead, an insurer has a record of paying out claims that aren't its responsibility and then covering its bottom line by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.