Insurance Subrogation Attorney
In Florida.

You paid a claim that someone else caused. Subrogation is your right to stand in your insured's shoes and recover that payment from the party at fault, or from their insurer. It is the difference between a loss you absorb and a loss you pass back to where it belongs.

Recovering what someone else's fault cost you or your insured

An insurer pays claims. That is the business. But a claim caused by a third party's negligence, a contractor's mistake, a defective product, or another driver's inattention is not a loss the insurer has to keep. The policy paid the insured; the law lets the insurer go and get the money back from whoever caused the damage. That recovery is subrogation, and in Florida it is a claim with its own rules, deadlines, and pitfalls.

What subrogation is

Subrogation is the right of a party who has paid another's loss to step into that person's legal position and pursue whoever was responsible. When your insured's kitchen burns because of a plumber's torch, you pay the property claim under the policy; subrogation lets you sue the plumber, or the plumber's liability carrier, for what you paid. The right arises from the policy itself, which almost always contains a subrogation clause, and from Florida common law, which recognizes it even where the policy is silent.

The claim you bring is your insured's claim. You have exactly the rights the insured had against the wrongdoer, no more, and you are subject to the same defenses the wrongdoer could have raised against the insured. That principle governs everything: the theory of the case, the evidence you need, the limitations period, and what the insured must and must not do after the loss.

Why this matters to your loss ratio

Every dollar recovered in subrogation comes straight off paid losses. For a property carrier, that can mean recovering a large part of a fire, water, or collapse claim from a contractor, manufacturer, or neighboring property owner. For an auto carrier, it means recovering collision and comprehensive payments, and in some cases medical payments, from the at-fault driver's liability coverage. Carriers that pursue subrogation systematically recover a meaningful share of what they pay; carriers that do not are subsidizing the people who caused their losses.

The obstacles are practical, and they are why the work goes to lawyers. Florida shortened its statute of limitations for negligence claims to two years for causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023, which means a subrogation claim built on negligence must be filed within two years of the loss or it is gone. Evidence disappears: the damaged water heater gets thrown out, the fire scene gets rebuilt, the vehicle gets salvaged. The insured, who has been paid and has moved on, must be kept available as a witness. And the responsible party's carrier will deny, delay, and argue comparative fault, because that is its business.

Just suppose

The following is an illustrative example, written to show how the process works. It is not a real client, a real matter, or a promise of any result.

Imagine you are a subrogation examiner at a property carrier with a book of homeowner policies in Fort Myers. After a storm, one of your insureds hired a contractor to replace a roof. The crew left a propane torch running on the deck overnight. The resulting fire destroyed the second floor and most of the contents. Your adjuster handled the claim properly and the policy paid $412,000. The fire marshal's report identifies the torch as the origin. The contractor is licensed, insured, and, when your adjuster called, already lawyered up.

You send the file to subrogation counsel with the fire report, the adjuster's file, the photographs, and the contractor's insurance information. The first step is preservation: a letter to the contractor and its carrier putting them on notice of the claim and demanding that the torch and the crew's equipment be preserved, and a retained fire investigator's supplemental inspection before the rebuild removes the evidence. The second is the demand to the contractor's liability carrier, with the origin-and-cause report, the paid-claim documentation, and the policy's subrogation clause.

The liability carrier responds with a reservation of rights and an argument that your insured contributed to the loss by not checking the deck. Counsel files suit in Lee County within the two-year window, pleading negligence against the contractor and its crew. The contractor's carrier, facing a fire report, a deposition of the crew foreman, and a jury pool that has seen storm-repair contractors before, mediates. The claim resolves for the majority of the paid amount, and the file closes with the recovery credited against the loss.

How subrogation works in Florida

The work begins at the claim stage, ideally before the claim is paid: identifying that a third party may be responsible, preserving the physical evidence and the scene, and documenting the loss in a way that will hold up against a defense expert. Once the claim is paid, the subrogation demand follows, with the documentation the responsible party's carrier needs to evaluate it. Many claims resolve at that stage. Those that do not are litigated, in the county where the loss occurred, under the same rules that would have applied to the insured's own suit.

Two Florida doctrines shape most files. The made-whole rule can limit an insurer's recovery where the insured has not been fully compensated, which matters when the insured has an uninsured loss on top of the paid claim. And comparative fault means the recovery is reduced by any share of fault attributed to the insured, which is why the insured's conduct is investigated as carefully as the wrongdoer's. Auto subrogation adds Florida's no-fault framework, under which some medical payments are not recoverable and property damage generally is.

Common questions

How long do we have to file?

For a claim based on negligence, two years from the date of loss for causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023. Claims based on a written contract, such as a lease or a service agreement with an indemnity clause, generally have five years. Identify the theory early; the deadline depends on it.

Do we need the insured's cooperation?

Yes. The claim is the insured's claim, and the insured is usually the key witness. Most policies require cooperation; counsel keeps the insured informed and prepared without making the process a burden.

What if the responsible party has no insurance?

Then the recovery depends on the party's own assets, and the case becomes a collection matter after judgment. This firm handles both halves.

Do you handle auto subrogation?

Yes, for collision, comprehensive, and applicable medical-payment recoveries against at-fault drivers and their carriers throughout Florida.

The discipline behind the result

Subrogation is a claim that must be preserved, proved, and pursued on a deadline, and then, if the wrongdoer will not pay, collected like any other judgment. We do all of it, from the evidence-preservation letter to the sheriff's levy, so the loss ends up where it belongs. Send the file. Call (813) 288-1881.