Hiring a lawyer will have an effect on more than just the lives of you and your loved ones. According to a study by the Center for Justice & Democracy, injured consumers who have brought lawsuits against organizations and manufacturers that are negligent, polluting, or offending in some other way have prevented countless injuries and saved millions of lives by forcing these organizations to end their malpractice while at the same time compelling them to create safer products. Many people are hesitant to contact an attorney due to potentially high costs, disinterested attorneys, and other potential stresses and hassles that could come from the court system.
By meeting with a lawyer you can overview your situation and determine what actions you should take and what attorney is the best fit for you. Take the first step today and improve your life and the lives of those around you.family law practice near me
Subrogation is a concept that's understood among insurance and legal firms but sometimes not by the people they represent. Even if it sounds complicated, it is to your advantage to comprehend the steps of the process. The more knowledgeable you are, the more likely relevant proceedings will work out favorably.
An insurance policy you hold is a commitment that, if something bad occurs, the company that covers the policy will make restitutions in a timely fashion. If a blizzard damages your real estate, your property insurance steps in to compensate you or enable the repairs, subject to state property damage laws.
But since determining who is financially accountable for services or repairs is typically a time-consuming affair – and delay often compounds the damage to the victim – insurance firms often decide to pay up front and figure out the blame later. They then need a mechanism to recoup the costs if, when there is time to look at all the facts, they weren't actually responsible for the expense.
For Example
You arrive at the doctor's office with a sliced-open finger. You give the nurse your medical insurance card and he takes down your policy information. You get taken care of and your insurer gets an invoice for the services. But on the following day, when you arrive at your workplace – where the accident occurred – your boss hands you workers compensation paperwork to file. Your company's workers comp policy is in fact responsible for the invoice, not your medical insurance policy. 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 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. Under ordinary circumstances, only you can sue for damages to your self or property. But under subrogation law, your insurer is considered to have some of your rights for having taken care of the damages. It can go after the money that was originally due to you, because it has covered the amount already.
Why Should I Care?
For starters, if you have a deductible, it wasn't just your insurer that had to pay. In a $10,000 accident with a $1,000 deductible, you lost some money too – namely, $1,000. If your insurance company is lax about bringing subrogation cases to court, it might opt to get back its costs by upping your premiums. On the other hand, if it knows which cases it is owed and pursues those cases aggressively, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all ten grand is recovered, you will get your full deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found one-half culpable), you'll typically get $500 back, depending on the laws in your state.
Furthermore, if the total cost 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 family law olympia wa, 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 researching the records of competing firms to find out if 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 right away 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 paying out claims that aren't its responsibility and then protecting its bottom line by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.
