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Every insurance policy you hold is a promise that, if something bad occurs, the firm that covers the policy will make restitutions without unreasonable delay. If your vehicle is hit, insurance adjusters (and the judicial system, when necessary) decide who was to blame and that party's insurance pays out.

But since determining who is financially accountable for services or repairs is usually a confusing affair – and time spent waiting in some cases increases the damage to the victim – insurance companies often decide to pay up front and assign blame later. They then need a way to recover the costs if, once the situation is fully assessed, they weren't actually responsible for the payout.

Let's Look at an Example

You are in a traffic-light accident. Another car crashed into yours. The police show up to assess the situation, you exchange insurance details, and you go on your way. You have comprehensive insurance that pays for the repairs right away. Later it's determined that the other driver was entirely to blame and his insurance should have paid for the repair of your vehicle. How does your company get its funds back?

How Does Subrogation Work?

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 insurance firms have in-house property damage lawyers and personal injury attorneys, or a department dedicated to subrogation; others contract with a law firm. Normally, only you can sue for damages done to your self or property. But under subrogation law, your insurer is extended some of your rights for making good on 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 a start, if your insurance policy stipulated a deductible, it wasn't just your insurer who had to pay. In a $10,000 accident with a $1,000 deductible, you have a stake in the outcome as well – namely, $1,000. If your insurer is lax about bringing subrogation cases to court, it might choose to get back its expenses by upping your premiums. On the other hand, if it has a knowledgeable legal team and pursues them aggressively, it is acting both in its own interests and in yours. If all $10,000 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 to blame), you'll typically get $500 back, depending on your state laws.

In addition, if the total loss of an accident is more than your maximum coverage amount, you may have had to pay the difference. If your insurance company or its property damage lawyers, such as criminal law defense lawyer Hillsboro OR, successfully press a subrogation case, it will recover your expenses in addition to its own.

All insurers are not created equal. When comparing, it's worth comparing the records of competing companies to evaluate if they pursue winnable subrogation claims; if they resolve those claims without delay; if they keep their policyholders informed as the case proceeds; and if they then process successfully won reimbursements immediately 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 income by raising your premiums, you'll feel the sting later.