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Automobile Insurance Subrogation in All 50 States - Second Edition - Hardcover
Automobile Insurance Subrogation in All 50 States - Second Edition - Digital
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§ 4.31[1] Subrogation Rights
New Jersey recognizes and favors equitable subrogation.1 It
recognizes that subrogation rights are created by contract, by statute,
and judicially as an equitable device. However, New Jersey’s
convoluted no-fault automobile insurance laws allow for relatively
little application of contractual and equitable subrogation to automobile
insurance.
New Jersey is also an anti-subrogation state as a result of the
interplay between its three Collateral Source Statutes. For a more
detailed discussion of these three statutes, see § 4.31[14] Collateral
Source Rule, below. New Jersey prohibits contractual and equitable
automobile insurance subrogation, not as a result of an antisubrogation
statute, but through statutory abrogation of the common
law Collateral Source Rule. Section 2A:15-97 (known as “§ 97”) of
the New Jersey Statutes restricts recovery from tortfeasors of
amounts covered by insurance and has been held to restrict
subrogation rights to statutory rights of subrogation only.2
Health insurers have no common-law equitable right to
subrogation for repayment out of a tort judgment.3 At the time of the
New Jersey Supreme Court decision in Perreira, the New Jersey
Administrative Code allowed for group policies and certificates
providing health insurance to contain subrogation and reimbursement
provisions.4 At that time, this administrative code section was
entitled, Provisions for Subrogation and Repayment of Benefits.
After the New Jersey Supreme Court decision in Perreira, the
Administrative Code § 11:4-42.10 was amended and retitled
Prohibition on Subrogation/Third Party Liability Provisions, and
now reads as follows:
(b) Insurers shall file with the commissioner no later than
December 31, 2002 endorsements that remove any
subrogation on third party recovery provisions contained in
previously filed contract, policy or certificate forms.5
Under New Jersey law, an Administrative Code Provision is required
to give way if it is inconsistent with the state statute.6 Therefore, the
well thought-out Administrative Code Provision, which allowed
subrogation in health insurance settings, was required to be amended in
deference to the New Jersey Collateral Source Rule, which was simply
a blanket rule prohibiting recovery by the plaintiff of damages which
Gary L. 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 fifth 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 Publishing), is
available on www.Amazon.com.
Licensed in both Texas and Wisconsin, Mr. Wickert is double
board-certified in personal injury law and civil trial law by the Texas
Board of Legal Specialization. He is nationally certified as a Civil
Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA), for
whom he has written and graded product liability questions contained
on the NBTA national certification exam taken by trial lawyers
around the country. For over 25 years, he has 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.
In 2002, Gary Wickert authored and published a treatise entitled
Workers' Compensation Subrogation In All 50 States (Juris
Publishing, Inc., New York), which is now in its Fifth Edition. You
can preview the treatise's contents and chapter summaries at
www.jurispub.com. It serves as the bible on workers' compensation
subrogation throughout the country and is the most thorough and
complete treatise on workers' compensation subrogation ever
published.
In 2005, Gary Wickert authored and published his second treatise
entitled ERISA and Health Insurance Subrogation In All 50 States,
(Juris Publishing, Inc., New York), which is now in its Fifth Edition.
You can preview its contents and chapter summaries at
www.jurispub.com. This treatise focuses on health insurance
subrogation in all 50 states and is in as much demand as the first
treatise.
In 2006, after years of receiving subrogation questions involving
livestock/vehicle collisions in all 50 states, Gary Wickert authored
and published his third treatise entitled Where's The Beef?
Subrogating Livestock/Vehicle Collisions In All 50 States, which is
now in its Second Edition. This treatise focuses on the laws
regarding liability of livestock owners in all 50 states and to date is
the most thorough treatment of this area of subrogation law ever
assembled. This treatise is available directly through Gary Wickert's
firm or his firm's website at www.mwl-law.com.
In 2008, Gary Wickert, with the help of his partners, Bradley W.
Matthiesen and Douglas W. Lehrer, authored and published his
fourth treatise entitled Fundamentals of Insurance Coverage In All
50 States, (Juris Publishing, Inc., New York), which is now in its
Fourth Edition. You can preview this treatise's contents and chapter
summaries at www.jurispub.com. This one-of-a-kind treatise covers
common issues and common rules to coverage triggers, equitable
relief, economic loss, property damage and a variety of policy
exclusions.
For information about Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer's National
Recovery Program, fees, list of clients, numerous subrogation links,
reported subrogation decisions, and published articles on the issue of
subrogation, visit his firm's website at www.mwl-law.com. Gary
Wickert can be reached at gwickert@mwl-law.com.
