Pulitzer prize winning historian David McCullough once said that “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it is so hard.” When claims adjusters, subrogation professionals, and/or subrogation lawyers document a settlement or stipulation with an insured’s or employee’s attorney regarding a subrogation interest, getting all the right words in the…
A new analysis of pedestrian safety by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) reveals that pedestrian fatalities are sharply on the rise. In fact, the report reveals the astonishing news that an average of nearly twenty-two (22) pedestrians per day were struck and killed by automobiles in the U.S. in 2020 and that number is…
Each year, water damage and freezing pipes cost insurers $15-$20 billion and result in claims from approximately 1 in 50 insured homes. While many cases of water damage are caused by a lack of maintenance or normal wear and tear, in the winter months, claims related to water damage and freezing pipes are extremely common.…
Most subrogation claims are small. If your subrogation law firm or recovery vendor does not handle small claims, you shouldn’t use them. Using HO-3 homeowner’s policy claims as an example, the average property damage claim payment was $8,787 according to data from the Insurance Research Council. In 2020, the average private passenger auto collision claim…
HB 2064 Takes Effect June 9, 2022. For many years a landlord’s property insurer’s ability to subrogate for property damage against a negligent tenant was governed by a handful of case decisions. A landlord was frequently presumed to carry insurance for the tenant’s benefit, making the tenant an implied co-insured and, therefore, immune from a…
Stowers v. Georgia Pacific, LLC, 2022 WL 903486 (Va. App. 2022). Trial lawyers in Virginia have been trying for decades to convince that state’s courts to rule that a workers’ compensation carrier is not subrogated to non-economic damages awarded or recovered in a third-party tort action. On March 29, 2022, the latest such effort was…
MWL sees more than its fair share of subrogation cases involving work-related injuries caused by shifting and falling cargo. If a truck’s cargo is not properly loaded or secured, the resulting workers’ compensation claims can be significant. We routinely see cases in which shifting cargo results in a trailer tipping over and a resulting tip…
Turner v. Pleasant Acres LLC, 2022 WL 815834 (Kan. App. 2022). On the same day as the Alabama Court of Appeals issued its ruling in O’Brien v. Mobile Public Library, attempting to curtail the rights of a workers’ compensation carrier against UM/UIM benefits, the Kansas Court of Appeals was doing exactly the opposite. For years,…
Ignores Supreme Court Decision Hinting Otherwise O’Brien v. Mobile Pub. Lib., 2022 WL 829245 (Ala. App. 2022). Workers’ compensation subrogation remains an intense struggle between the powers of good and evil; with insurance carriers attempting to preserve their rights to seek reimbursement of claim payments made necessary through the negligent acts of tortfeasors and the…
Subrogation Shortcuts Lead To Drastically Smaller Recoveries. Litigation is rarely cheap, but it is often necessary. Nowhere is this truer than in the area of insurance subrogation, where those who resist paying subrogation claims assume that insurance companies are loath to pull the trigger and file suit and will, therefore, never pay full value on…