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Workers' Compensation Subrogation In All 50 States - 5th Edition - Hardcover
Workers' Compensation Subrogation In All 50 States - 5th Edition - Electronic
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§ 11.11 Georgia
§ 11.11[1] Statutory Subrogation Rights
Georgia has flip-flopped several times on whether or not it grants
an employer/workers' compensation carrier subrogation rights. As
originally enacted in 1920, the Georgia Workers' Compensation Act
did not subrogate the employer to any part of the employee's thirdparty
claim. In 1922, the Act was amended to extend subrogation
rights to the employer under certain circumstances. In 1972, the
employer's subrogation rights were abolished by the repeal of former
§ 114-403.1 On July 1, 1992, Georgia passed § 34-9-11.1, the current
statute, which once again allows for subrogation rights. Its purpose
and legislative intent in allowing subrogation is to provide for cost
containment by reimbursing the carrier/employers who have paid
benefits.2 It currently reads as follows:
§ 34-9-11.1. Rights of employee or employer or its insurer
to proceed against persons other than employer who are
liable for employee's injury or death.
(a) When the injury or death for which compensation is
payable under this chapter is caused under circumstances
creating a legal liability against some person other than the
employer, the injured employee or those to whom such
employee's right of action survives at law may pursue the
remedy by proper action in a court of competent jurisdiction
against such other persons, except as precluded by Code
Section 34-9-11 or otherwise.
(b) In the event an employee has a right of action against
such other person as contemplated in subsection (a) of this
Code section and the employer's liability under this chapter
has been fully or partially paid, then the employer or such
employer's insurer shall have a subrogation lien, not to
exceed the actual amount of compensation paid pursuant to
this chapter, against such recovery. The employer or insurer
may intervene in any action to protect and enforce such lien.
However, the employer's or insurer's recovery under this
Code section shall be limited to the recovery of the amount
of disability benefits, death benefits, and medical expenses
paid under this chapter and shall only be recoverable if the
injured employee has been fully and completely
compensated, taking into consideration both the benefits
received under this chapter and the amount of the recovery
in the third party claim, for all economic and non-economic
losses incurred as a result of the injury.
§ 11.11 Georgia
§ 11.11[1] Statutory Subrogation Rights
§ 11.11[2] Third Parties
§ 11.11[3] Allocation of Third-Party Recovery
§ 11.11[4] Attorneys' Fees and Costs
§ 11.11[5] Credit/Advance
§ 11.11[6] Extra-Territorial Subrogation
§ 11.11[7] Related Subrogation Issues
§ 11.11[8] Statutes of Limitations
§ 11.11[9] Workers' Compensation in Georgia
Gary Wickert is an insurance trial lawyer and is regarded as one of the world's leading experts on insurance subrogation. He is the author of several subrogation books and legal treatises and is a national and international speaker and lecturer on subrogation and motivational topics. Mr. Wickert is also a politician in Wisconsin, serving his fourth term as Town Supervisor in the Township of Cedarburg. After 15 years as the youngest managing partner in the history of the 30-lawyer Houston law firm of Hughes, Watters & Askanase, L.L.P., he returned to his native Wisconsin in 1998 and co-founded the firm of Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. He oversees a National Recovery Program which includes a network of nearly 300 contracted subrogation law firms in all 50 states, Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom and boasts recoveries of more than $500 million in recoveries and credits for more than 250 insurance companies. Gary Wickert is also a commercial fiction author and his latest political thriller, Dark Redemption (Tudor Publishers), is available on Amazon.com.
Licensed in both Texas and Wisconsin, Mr. Wickert is double board-certified in both personal injury law and civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is also nationally certified as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA), for whom he has both written and graded the product liability questions contained on the NBTA national certification exam taken by trial lawyers around the country. For nearly twenty-five years, he has also served as an expert witness on subrogation and insurance related issues and has been consulted by insurance carriers, lawyers, and legislative bodies from several states. He is a licensed arbitrator and has attended more than 750 mediations in more than 30 different states. He is one of only a few lawyers to have ever represented a client before the United States Supreme Court on a subrogation issue, and was named one of Law & Politics and Milwaukee Super Lawyers magazine's Super Lawyers for 2005, 2006, and 2008. For a complete resume on Gary L. Wickert, see Appendix A-13 of this book.
