Subrogation is a concept that's understood in insurance and legal circles but rarely by the policyholders they represent. Rather than leave it to the professionals, it would be in your self-interest to know the steps of how it works. The more knowledgeable you are, the more likely it is that an insurance lawsuit will work out favorably.

Any insurance policy you hold is a commitment that, if something bad happens to you, the insurer of the policy will make restitutions without unreasonable delay. If your home is broken into, for example, your property insurance agrees to pay you or enable the repairs, subject to state property damage laws.

But since determining who is financially accountable for services or repairs is often a time-consuming affair – and delay often increases the damage to the victim – insurance firms in many cases decide to pay up front and assign blame after the fact. They then need a means to recoup the costs if, when all is said and done, they weren't responsible for the expense.

For Example

You rush into the emergency room with a deeply cut finger. You hand the nurse your health insurance card and she records your policy details. You get taken care of and your insurance company gets an invoice for the expenses. But on the following morning, when you arrive at work – where the injury occurred – you are given workers compensation paperwork to fill out. Your company's workers comp policy is actually responsible for the invoice, not your health insurance. It has a vested interest in getting that money back somehow.

How Subrogation Works

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 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 insurance company is given some of your rights in exchange 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 Policyholders?

For one thing, if your insurance policy stipulated 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 lost some money too – to the tune of $1,000. If your insurer is lax about bringing subrogation cases to court, it might opt to get back its costs by boosting your premiums and call it a day. On the other hand, if it has a proficient legal team and goes after them enthusiastically, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all $10,000 is recovered, you will get your full deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found 50 percent accountable), you'll typically get $500 back, based on the laws in most states.

Furthermore, 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 Attorney for Car Accidents Smyrna GA, pursue subrogation and succeeds, it will recover your expenses as well as its own.

All insurance agencies are not the same. When shopping around, it's worth looking at the reputations of competing agencies to evaluate whether they pursue legitimate subrogation claims; if they resolve those claims fast; if they keep their clients apprised as the case goes on; 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 insurance firm has a record of paying out claims that aren't its responsibility and then protecting its income by raising your premiums, you should keep looking.