A natural question for someone in Weatherford, Mineral Wells, Aledo, Hudson Oaks, Willow Park, Millsap, Brock, or anywhere else in Parker County to ask is; What is the value of my claim?
When the claim is a personal injury claim, there is no easy answer. One general principle in this regard is that there are laws against making a “double recovery.” A double recovery would be where you collect money from more than one source for an injury. The most likely place for this to be seen is where a person is injured in an auto accident caused by another. The injured person goes to the hospital and pays for the hospital bills with their personal health insurance. Then later on, the injured person makes a claim against the person who caused the accident and injuries and the insurance company for that person pays the injured person again, for the same hospital bills. Technically, this is illegal.
Another example is where the injured person makes a claim against two other people who may be responsible for the injuries and both pay all the bills.
In the second example above the Texas Civil Practices & Remedies Code, Section 33.012(b) says, “If the claimant has settled with one or more persons, the court shall further reduce the amount of damages to be recovered by the claimant with respect to a cause of action by the sum of the dollar amounts of all settlements.”
What Section 33.012(b) means is that if a person has a claim that is worth $1,000, then he cannot collect $1,000 from both people he is making the claim against. So, if one pays $100, then he still has a claim against the other for $900.
In the first example above, where the injured person has had the hospital bills paid by his insurance company, then the hospital has a subrogation interest in any amounts the injured person receives from the person who caused the injuries. The amount of the subrogation amount would be an amount up to what his health insurance has paid. So, if the injured person has a claim worth $1,000 but only $500 is paid by the health insurance company and if the injured person collects $1,000 from the person who caused the injury, then $500 has to be paid back to the health insurance company and the injured person can do as they wish with the other $500.
An experienced Insurance Law Attorney knows how to use other laws and legal principles to increase the total amount of the recovery and or lessen the amount of money that has to be paid back as a subrogation interest. – One thing to know, is it can be very confusing.
One place where a double recovery is allowed and fully legal is in auto injury claims where the injured person has Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits. The Texas Insurance Code, Section 1952.155(a) and (b).
Section 1952.155(a) says, “The benefits under coverage required by this subchapter are payable without regard to: (2) any collateral source of medical, hospital, or wage continuation benefits.” This means that the injured person can collect his PIP benefits and then still make a claim against some other personal insurance he has for the same losses such as medical bills or lost wages. The caveat here is that there are exceptions to this and is again, a situation where an experienced Insurance Law Attorney needs to be involved to stay out of trouble.
Section 1952.155(b) says, “Except as provided by Subsection (c), an insurer paying benefits under coverage required by this subchapter does not have a right of subrogation or claim against any other person or insurer to recover any benefits by reason of the alleged fault of the other person in causing or contributing to the accident.” This means that the PIP insurance company cannot subrogate against the insurance company of the person who caused the injuries. There is only one exception to this statute which is in Subsection (c), and this writer does not know where it has ever come into play.
The lesson to be taken from this posting is that the value of a claim has to take into account the rules discussed above.
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