Subrogation is a term that's understood among legal and insurance firms but rarely by the people who hire them. Even if it sounds complicated, it would be in your self-interest to understand the nuances of the process. The more information you have about it, the better decisions you can make with regard to your insurance policy.

An insurance policy you have is a commitment that, if something bad happens to you, the insurer of the policy will make good in one way or another without unreasonable delay. If you get injured on the job, for instance, your employer's workers compensation insurance pays out for medical services. Employment lawyers handle the details; you just get fixed up.

But since determining who is financially responsible for services or repairs is often a time-consuming affair – and delay often compounds the damage to the victim – insurance companies usually decide to pay up front and assign blame after the fact. They then need a path to recover the costs if, when there is time to look at all the facts, they weren't actually in charge of the payout.

Let's Look at an Example

Your kitchen catches fire and causes $10,000 in home damages. Fortunately, you have property insurance and it pays out your claim in full. However, the insurance investigator finds out that an electrician had installed some faulty wiring, and there is reason to believe that a judge would find him liable for the loss. The home has already been repaired in the name of expediency, but your insurance company is out all that money. What does the company do next?

How Does Subrogation Work?

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 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 person or property. But under subrogation law, your insurance company is extended 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 Policyholders?

For one thing, if you have a deductible, it wasn't just your insurance company that 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 opt to recover its expenses by ballooning your premiums and call it a day. On the other hand, if it has a knowledgeable legal team and pursues them enthusiastically, it is doing you a favor as well as itself. If all is recovered, you will get your full $1,000 deductible back. If it recovers half (for instance, in a case where you are found 50 percent at fault), 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 family law lawyer Portland OR, pursue subrogation and wins, it will recover your costs in addition to its own.

All insurance agencies are not the same. When shopping around, it's worth comparing the reputations of competing agencies to find out if they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they do so with some expediency; if they keep their accountholders informed 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 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.