For nearly fifty years, Montana has been ground zero for the aggressive application of the Made Whole Doctrine. Intimidation, bad-faith actions, and class action lawsuits have littered the ground where common-sense insurance subrogation used to dwell. What began as an equitable principle established by the Montana Supreme Court in 1977 in Skauge v. Mountain States…
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A while back, I was involved in a case where some electricians had installed solar panels on the roof of a building to generate electricity. A few years after it was installed, there was a fire. Nobody really disputed how it happened; some rodent, most likely a squirrel, had been gnawing on electrical wires underneath…
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Most states permit a workers’ compensation carrier to assert a future credit against benefits otherwise payable when an injured employee recovers damages from a responsible third party. The availability of a future credit is now the rule rather than the exception. Yet, while the existence of the credit is widely accepted, the mechanics of how…
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The Utah Supreme Court has issued an important decision for workers’ compensation and subrogation professionals navigating third-party recoveries and future credits. In HB Construction and/or Auto Owners Insurance Co. v. Labor Commission of Utah, the Court resolved a long-standing ambiguity in Utah Code § 34A-2-106(5) and clarified how attorney fees must be allocated when a…
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The Eleventh Circuit’s December 22nd decision in Blanchard v. Walker is a timely cautionary tale for workers’ compensation carriers about the high cost of passivity in Alabama third-party litigation.[1] Although the case arose from a multistate fact pattern, its real lesson is procedural and strategic: a carrier’s lien and subrogation recovery depend on the continued…
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The ongoing assault against subrogation continues. The Connecticut Supreme Court’s January 6th decision in Orlando v. Liburd, should be treated as a practical warning for carriers and subrogation professionals pursuing automobile physical damage recoveries in Connecticut.[1] It instructs us that, unless the policy expressly and effectively disclaims the Made Whole Doctrine as a limitation on…
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Most states permit a workers’ compensation carrier to assert a future credit against benefits otherwise payable when an injured employee recovers damages from a responsible third party. The availability of a future credit is now the rule rather than the exception. Yet, while the existence of the credit is widely accepted, the mechanics of how…
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Medicare is a federal health insurance program administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that primarily provides coverage to individuals age 65 and older, and also to certain younger individuals with qualifying disabilities and to people with end-stage renal disease. It is generally divided into Part A (hospital insurance), Part B (medical…
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California’s Economic Loss Doctrine (ELD) has long been a source of confusion for subrogation professionals. The challenge is not merely understanding the doctrine’s contours, but applying it to common residential fire losses where a discrete component product damages structures and contents far beyond its own failure point. Until recently, most of the major California decisions…
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About seven years ago, I became fascinated with autonomous vehicles for a very selfish reason: I hated my commute. Three hours a day behind the wheel felt like wasted life. I dreamed of the day when my car would drive itself—when I could answer emails, squeeze in a workout, take a nap, or finally catch…
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