Texas - Workers' Compensation Subrogation In All 50 States - 5th Edition

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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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§ 11.44 Texas

§ 11.44[1] Statutory Subrogation Rights

Workers' compensation subrogation in Texas is controlled by
§ 417 of the Texas Labor Code.1 In particular, the following statutes
are applicable:

§ 417.001. Third-Party Liability.

(a) An employee or legal beneficiary may seek damages from
a third party who is or becomes liable to pay damages for an
injury or death that is compensable under this subtitle and
may also pursue a claim for workers' compensation benefits
under this subtitle.

(b) If a benefit is claimed by an injured employee or a legal
beneficiary of the employee, the insurance carrier is
subrogated to the rights of the injured employee and may
enforce the liability of the third party in the name of the
injured employee or the legal beneficiary. The insurance
carrier's subrogation interest is limited to the amount of the
total benefits paid or assumed by the carrier to the employee
or the legal beneficiary, less the amount by which the court
reduces the judgment based on the percentage of
responsibility determined by the trier of fact under Section
33.003, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, attributable to
the employer. If the recovery is for an amount greater than
the amount of the insurance carrier's subrogation interest,
the insurance carrier shall:

(1) reimburse itself and pay the costs from the amount
recovered; and

(2) pay the remainder of the amount recovered to the
injured employee or the legal beneficiary.

(c) If a claimant receives benefits from the subsequent injury
fund, the division is:

(1) considered to be the insurance carrier under this
section for purposes of those benefits;

(2) subrogated to the rights of the claimant; and

(3) entitled to reimbursement in the same manner as the
insurance carrier.

(d) The division shall remit money recovered under this
section to the comptroller for deposit to the credit of the
subsequent injury fund.2

§ 11.44 Texas

§ 11.44[1] Statutory Subrogation Rights
§ 11.44[2] Third Parties
§ 11.44[3] Allocation of Third-Party Recovery
§ 11.44[4] Attorneys' Fees and Costs
§ 11.44[5] Credit/Advance
§ 11.44[6] Staff Leasing/Temporary Employee Services and Borrowed Servant Doctrine
§ 11.44[7] Related Subrogation Issues
§ 11.44[8] Statutes of Limitations
§ 11.44[9] Workers' Compensation in Texas

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.