Often, where your employer or insurance company is paying you benefits and they find out you have an ICBC claim, they seek reimbursement of what they pay. They then ask you to sign a subrogation agreement.
Before signing any subrogation agreement, it’s imperative that you review the agreement with a lawyer.
The starting point is to look at whether or not the employer or insurance company even has the right to demand a subrogation agreement be signed.
The second thing to look at is the terms of the subrogation agreement. Some insurance companies go so far as to expect 100% recovery of what they pay out regardless of how you do with your ICBC claim. This is completely unfair because in some situations, you will not be receiving full recovery from ICBC. For example, you may not the awarded your full wage loss for various reasons. Alternatively, you may be partly responsible for the accident and only get a percentage of your damages. Further, you may have to pay legal fees to pursue the claim.
Any subrogation agreement that you have signed should, at the most, allow for reimbursement to the employer or insurance company of any money they pay less legal fees.
Unfortunately, some union negotiated disability plans provide the insurance companies with the ability to recover 100% of their payments back from you regardless of how your ICBC claim works. It’s well worth your effort to notify your union representative of the unfairness of such a clause so that in the future collective-bargaining negotiations, the insurance company’s subrogation rights are restricted to what is actually recovered. Often, the unions are unaware of this unfairness that is created by the bargaining.
