America is facing a rapidly worsening uninsured and underinsured motorist crisis, one that is exacting a heavy emotional, human, and financial toll on law-abiding drivers and the insurance system that serves them. Current estimates place the number of uninsured drivers at more than 30 million nationwide, meaning roughly one out of every ten vehicles on…
Progressive Garden State Insurance Company v. Allstate NJ Insurance Company, 2025 WL 2327776 (N.J. Super. August 13, 2025) The Longstanding Debate Over Med Pay Subrogation in New Jersey For years, New Jersey attorneys, insurers, and claims professionals have debated whether Medical Payments (“Med Pay”) benefits in auto insurance policies can be subrogated against third-party tortfeasors.…
Stephanie Jaster, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Selective Ins. Co. of S.C., Defendant-Respondent., 2025 WL 1379673 (Wis. App. May 13, 2025) In a recently released Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision, Stephanie Jaster v. Selective Insurance Co. of South Carolina, the court reaffirmed a key principle in the Minnesota PIP subrogation landscape: an insurer’s failure to expressly assert subrogation…
Little by little, Alabama is letting out the line when it comes to who can recovery loss of use damages after an automobile has been in an accident. In addition to the other damages recoverable, loss of use (reasonable value of use or rental of a car while the owner is deprived of use of…
Every day we see evidence of the continuing evolution of subrogation law across our country. In many respects, we are still pioneers in this industry, as subrogation wasn’t pursued, respected, or sought after for many years, leaving many areas in our industry undecided by the courts and simply unknown. A good example of this is…
We are still years away from full implementation of true self-driving cars in the U.S., but each step we take dramatically complicates and changes the face of auto claims handling, vehicle repairs, and subrogation litigation. When catastrophic claims are paid as a result of a traffic accident resulting from a failure of an automated driving…
If you are a subrogation professional sending out demand letters and attempting to recover property damage, medical payments, or PIP benefits from a tortfeasor who is obviously at fault in an automobile collision, your worldview is one in which 50% of vehicle brakes in America are seemingly defective. It isn’t possible to go a week,…
A few years ago, a contractor working near MWL’s Santa Ana, California office was spraying a structure with epoxy primer, one of the hardest paints to remove. Nearby and downwind of the construction area was an auto auction facility getting ready for the weekend’s auction. The lot contained 752 new and used vehicles. Wind coming…
A recent 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision interpreting Mississippi insurance law has ruled that an automobile insurance carrier can exclude diminished value claims from its underinsured motorist coverage. In Watkins v. Allstate Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Kimberly Jones (insured by Safeway Insurance Company) negligently crashed into a vehicle driven by Kenan Watkins (insured…
Auto subrogation and car dealerships are no strangers to one another. Car dealerships and their insurers routinely seek to hold vehicle test drivers, customers, and other permissive users liable for physical damage to the dealers’ courtesy and rental vehicles and as well as for damages to third parties resulting from the negligent operation of dealership…