Subrogation is an idea that's understood among insurance and legal companies but rarely by the customers who employ them. Even if it sounds complicated, it is in your self-interest to comprehend the steps of how it works. The more knowledgeable you are about it, the better decisions you can make with regard to your insurance policy.

Any insurance policy you have is a commitment that, if something bad happens to you, the business on the other end of the policy will make good in a timely fashion. If you get injured while working, for example, your employer's workers compensation agrees to pay for medical services. Employment lawyers handle the details; you just get fixed up.

But since determining who is financially accountable for services or repairs is usually a heavily involved affair – and time spent waiting sometimes compounds the damage to the victim – insurance companies usually decide to pay up front and figure out the blame later. They then need a method to recoup the costs if, ultimately, they weren't actually responsible for the expense.

For Example

Your living room catches fire and causes $10,000 in home damages. Happily, you have property insurance and it takes care of the repair expenses. However, the insurance investigator finds out that an electrician had installed some faulty wiring, and there is a decent chance that a judge would find him responsible for the loss. You already have your money, but your insurance firm is out $10,000. What does the firm do next?

How Subrogation Works

This is where subrogation comes in. It is the way that an insurance company uses to claim payment 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. Usually, only you can sue for damages to your person or property. But under subrogation law, your insurer is given 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.

How Does This Affect Me?

For a start, if your insurance policy stipulated a deductible, your insurer 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 be precise, $1,000. If your insurance company is lax about bringing subrogation cases to court, it might choose to recover its losses by raising your premiums. On the other hand, if it knows which cases it is owed and pursues them enthusiastically, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all is recovered, you will get your full thousand-dollar deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found 50 percent accountable), you'll typically get half your deductible back, based on the laws in most states.

Furthermore, if the total price 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 criminal law defense lawyer Portland OR, pursue subrogation and wins, it will recover your expenses in addition to its own.

All insurance agencies are not created equal. When shopping around, it's worth looking at the reputations of competing firms to evaluate if they pursue legitimate subrogation claims; if they do so fast; if they keep their customers advised as the case continues; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements immediately so that you can get your money back and move on with your life. If, instead, an insurance firm has a reputation of paying out claims that aren't its responsibility and then safeguarding its profitability by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.