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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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§ 11.32 New Mexico
§ 11.32[1] Statutory Subrogation Rights
Workers' compensation subrogation in New Mexico is governed
by a single statute, § 52-5-17.1 It provides that an injured worker
will not be denied the right to recover damages in the third-party
action simply because he has received workers' compensation
benefits for the same injury.2 However, the worker will not be
allowed to retain both the compensation benefits and the third-party
damages because § 52-5-17 assigns to the workers' compensation
carrier that portion of the judgment or third-party recovery which
equals the amount of compensation benefits paid by the carrier.3
The purpose for this statute is to prevent a double recovery to the
employee and to protect the employer's/carrier's right to
reimbursement from the proceeds of the third-party action.4 Section
52-5-17 reads as follows:
(A) The right of any worker or, in case of his death, of those
entitled to receive payment or damages for injuries or
disablement occasioned to him by the negligence or wrong of
any person other than the employer or any other employee of
the employer, including a management or supervisory
employee, shall not be affected by the Workers'
Compensation Act [Chapter 52, Article 1 N.M.S.A. 1978] or
the New Mexico Occupational Disease Disablement Law, but
the claimant shall not be allowed to receive payment or
recover damages for those injuries or disablement and also
claim compensation from the employer, except as provided
in Subsection C of this section.
(B) In a circumstance covered by Subsection A of this
section, the receipt of compensation from the employer shall
operate as an assignment to the employer or his insurer,
guarantor or surety of any cause of action, to the extent of
payment by the employer to or on behalf of the worker for
compensation or any other benefits to which the worker was
entitled under the Workers' Compensation Act or the New
Mexico Occupational Disease Disablement Law and that
were occasioned by the injury or disablement, that the
worker or his legal representative or others may have
against any other party for the injury or disablement.
§ 11.32 New Mexico
§ 11.32[1] Statutory Subrogation Rights
§ 11.32[2] Third Parties
§ 11.32[3] Allocation of Third-Party Recovery
§ 11.32[4] Attorneys' Fees and Costs
§ 11.32[5] Credit/Advance
§ 11.32[6] Related Subrogation Issues
§ 11.32[7] Statutes of Limitations
§ 11.32[8] Workers' Compensation in New Mexico
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.
