Whether you are investigating a subrogation claim or conducting interviews of injured claimants, being able to record a conversation and refer back to it can be indispensable to the handling of a matter either before or during litigation. Today’s technology makes obtaining clear recordings of conversation with witnesses easy to obtain, and in an industry…
A Christmas-day article in one of our local newspapers drives home the important lesson that a subrogation claim is often won or lost in the short period immediately following a loss. On July 6, 2013, pieces of electrical equipment in the basement of the Milwaukee County Courthouse started on fire, closing the courthouse for days.…
As most subrogation professionals handling auto subrogation in Illinois know, Illinois Senate Bill signed into law effective January 1, 2012 changed subrogation in that state significantly. For the first time, Illinois mandated that in collision subrogation cases involving amounts less than $2,500, recently-enacted § 143.24d now required mandatory arbitration between all auto carriers. That development…
In reviewing a three-year-old property subrogation file for a client recently, we noticed repeated references in the claim notes to the lack of subrogation due to the fact that the insured had agreed to indemnify the tortfeasor for any damages resulting from the relationship between the insured and tortfeasor. Many assume that simply because the…
For those who are not aware, in 2013, Claims Journal’s online magazine asked Gary Wickert to begin a new monthly column focusing on subrogation and related claims and insurance topics. Gary’s column can be found HERE. The column was very well-received and provides subrogation with a very widely-read medium in which to talk shop and lobby…
Following closely on the heels of an unfavorable decision, state legislators in Albany wasted no time embarking on a rescue mission to save New York’s anti-subrogation statute from ERISA preemption. McKinney’s G.O.L. §§ 5-101 and 5-335. The statute, originally enacted in 2009, was purportedly an attempt to protect parties to settlements of tort claims from…
One of the more common misconceptions one hears in the realm of health and accident subrogation is that, when it comes to motor vehicle accidents, “there is no subrogation in Michigan.” No one can deny that the Michigan No-Fault Act presents an abundance of obstacles for a carrier looking to recover medical and wage loss…
Drastic Re-Write of Comp Law Provides New Subrogation Options In the 1970s, the Oklahoma Sooners’ football team successfully began implementing a new offensive system known as the “option offense.” Sooner Coach Barry Switzer has been credited by many for having perfected the use of the wishbone offense, a staple of option offenses. Forty years later,…
When and whether a vehicle involved in a collision is considered to be “totaled” for first-party insurance purposes is an issue of great angst and confusion for most consumers. We hear horror stories about older, functioning automobiles being “totaled” simply because the frame is bent or other seemingly minor and hidden damage occurs. Even insurance…
It is said that releases and settlement agreements “use a hundred words when ten would do” and there is a good reason for that. Those drafting the release want to include as much as possible within the future protections, claims released, and indemnity provided by the document. Conversely, those signing the release want to limit…