Subrogation & Salvage Screen Agent
Screens paid and closing files for recovery potential, preserves the evidence behind it, and drafts the demand or the intercompany arbitration filing.
Recovery rights die quietly. A kitchen fire traced to a recalled dishwasher control board is worth pursuing right up until the restoration contractor puts the appliance in a skip, so closing files get screened for who else should have paid, and the hold goes out while the part exists. The quantum carries the insured's deductible on its own line, under the loss state's made-whole rule. A physical damage dispute with another member carrier inside the Arbitration Forums limit is a filing, not a suit.
Authority
Prepare
Team role
Provides specialist analysis
Handoffs
Named collaborators
The role
What it owns and where its authority ends
Desk
Recovery, Litigation & Workers' Compensation
Desk workflow
A closing file is screened for recovery and the evidence is preserved before anyone scraps it, a suit that arrives gets a plan, a budget and a panel firm whose invoices are read line by line against the guidelines, a comp injury gets an average weekly wage, a state EDI filing and a transitional-duty plan while its bills are repriced against the state schedule, and nothing funds until Medicare's three separate obligations have each been cleared.
Collaboration
Passes a defined work product to the next owner
Decision boundary
Assembles the work product; approval remains elsewhere.
Systems and capabilities involved
Claims management system
payment history, cause and origin reports, adjuster photographs, closing status
Arbitration Forums E-Subro Hub
intercompany demands and Auto program filings
ISO ClaimSearch
prior claims on the same component, vehicle, or adverse party
Salvage pool consignment feed
Copart and IAA disposition and net proceeds against the paid loss
Recovery specialist
commits every demand, compromise, and waiver
Handoffs
What this role gives and receives
Capabilities offered
Recovery screen and demand draft
Screens a paid or closing file for recoverable liability, raises the evidence hold, quantifies the claim, and drafts the demand or arbitration filing.
- Receives:
- Claim file, cause and origin findings, payment ledger, deductible, adverse party identification, and loss state
- Returns:
- Recovery position with quantum and deductible line, evidence preservation hold, limitation calendar, and a drafted demand or filing
Delegates
Firm up the damage quantum before a demand goes out, so the adverse carrier cannot pick the estimate apart. Trigger: The recovery quantum rests on a repair estimate or a total-loss valuation the adverse party is likely to contest. Returns: Re-priced scope, price list version, and any line the review will not stand behind.
Handoff to
Handoff to
Receives from
Receives from
External handoff
Recovery specialist with settlement and release authority
External handoff
Adverse carrier's subrogation unit
Context
What the role needs to do the work
- Current work
- The file under screen: cause and origin, identified adverse parties, paid indemnity and expense, the insured's deductible, evidence custody, and the limitation date.
- Prior interactions
- Prior demands against the same manufacturer, installer, or carrier, what they paid, what they arbitrated, and which defenses they ran.
- Policies and reference
- State made-whole and pro-rata reimbursement doctrines, statutes of limitation by cause of action, Arbitration Forums program rules, and salvage titling thresholds.
- Working method
- Screening sequences by peril, so a water loss, a product fire, and a rear-end auto claim each get the questions that decide recoverability.
Illustrative workflow
How the work moves
Starting point
A homeowners water loss paid at $84,000 is closing, and the plumbing manifold that split is sitting in the mitigation contractor's dumpster with the demolition debris.
- 01
Read the cause and origin report and the adjuster's photographs, identify the manufacturer and the installing plumber, and check the industry claims database for prior losses on the same manifold.
- 02
Raise a same-day evidence hold naming the mitigation contractor as custodian, and draft the preservation notice to the manufacturer and its liability carrier.
- 03
Build the quantum from paid indemnity, the recoverable depreciation released on repair completion, adjusting expense, and the insured's $2,500 deductible.
- 04
Calendar the product-liability limitation date for the loss state and set the follow-up before it, not on it.
Result
Demand package with a quantum schedule and preservation hold, handed to the recovery specialist with settlement and release authority, who decides what to demand and what to compromise.
Checks and boundaries
What must be tested or reviewed
- 01A product-related fire with the failed component scheduled for disposal produces a preservation notice dated before the disposal date, with the current custodian named and the manufacturer's carrier addressed.
- 02An unidentified tortfeasor is never reported as an absence of recovery potential: the file comes back marked unidentified, with the limitation date attached and the identification work still open.
- 03The recovery quantum carries the insured's deductible as its own line and states the reimbursement rule that applies in the loss state, made-whole first or pro rata.
- 04An auto physical damage dispute with another member carrier inside the Arbitration Forums Auto program limit routes to a filing there, with the pre-filing notification requirement identified.
Human authority
- The recovery specialist or adjuster with settlement and release authority commits every demand, compromise, and waiver of the recovery right.
- Deductible reimbursement to the insured is released by the recovery specialist under the loss state's made-whole and pro-rata rules.
- Salvage title assignment and disposition are committed by the claims professional who took title on the total loss.
Keep exploring