LANDMARK WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SUBROGATION DECISION IN NEVADA! AmTrust N. Am., Inc. v. Vasquez, 2024 WL 4233423 (Nev. 2024)

On September 19, 2024, in one of the most pro-subrogation decisions in a generation, the Nevada Supreme Court has overnight turned Nevada into one of the most favorable states for workers’ compensation subrogation. With the stroke of a pen, the court has done the following: Abandoned the “Breen Formula”—which it declared was “unworkable” and “no…

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Recovery of Increased Workers’ Compensation Premiums by Employer

It is said that good judgment comes from experience, but experience comes from bad judgment. This pithy aphorism is generally true in life but is particularly true when a company sees significantly increased workers’ compensation insurance premiums following a serious workers’ compensation claim. The same is true even if the claim was not the employer’s…

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MISSOURI’S ANTI-SUBROGATION POLICIES HAVE THEIR LIMITS Megown v. Auto Club Fam. Ins. Co., 2024 WL 675550 (Mo. App. 2024)

In December we reported on the anti-subrogation climate in Missouri and the Court of Appeals decision in Thomas v. Ramushi, which held that, absent a “direct assignment”, an insurer has no authority to seek a property subrogation payment from the tortfeasor without the insured’s consent.[1] That decision highlighted the important distinction between a subrogation clause…

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PENNSYLVANIA COMP CARRIER RECOVERS FULL LIEN AFTER ADVISING PLAINTIFF’S COUNSEL THAT LIEN WAS MUCH SMALLER: Janelle Newsome, Petitioner v. City of Philadelphia (Workers’ Comp. Appeal Bd.), Respondent, 2024 WL 3406202 (Pa. Commw. 2024).

In a rare example of how strong a workers’ compensation statutory lien can be, a Pennsylvania appellate court affirmed a ruling by a Workers’ Compensation Judge (affirmed by the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (WCAB)) in which a workers’ compensation carrier was allowed to recover its full $45,530.48 lien out of the employee’s $675,000 third-party settlement,…

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DELAWARE COURT SAYS IT IS NOT BAD FAITH IF CARRIER CHOOSES NOT TO SUBROGATE Patel v. State Farm, 2024 WL 3425787 (Del. Super. 2024)

A Delaware court has thrown a small blanket of precedent over the smoldering embers of claims by some insureds with large deductibles that their insurance company is guilty of bad faith if it does not attempt to subrogate and recover the insured’s deductible. On August 2, 2020, Praveen Patel’s house located at 403 Derby Way,…

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THE FUTURE OF AUTO SUBROGATION IS HERE: Pursuing Claims Involving Automated Driving Systems

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…

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WHAT IF SUBROGATION WAS AS SIMPLE AS PUSHING A BUTTON?: State Farm Fire & Casualty Company v. Moving & Storage, Inc., 2024 WL 1061574 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., 2024)

In one of our most widely-reprinted and widely-read articles, “Ten Subrogation Mistakes Insurance Companies Keep Making”, the number one most prevalent and most costly mistake is waiting too long to involve subrogation counsel. It sounds like an MWL marketing pitch, and of course, in many ways it is. But it is also the truth. The…

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