Auto Insurance Claims: deductible, Deductible Reimbursement

Question
Hi Justin,

My daughter was in an accidents a few day ago.. The other driver was cited and was determined 100 percent at fault. Her car is being repaired.
She will be paying her deductible. Both people have the same insurance.
What are her chances of getting her deductible back? We live in a state
with no law regarding insurance claims an deductibles. I would think
it would be a conflict of interest for Insurance companies to subrogate
with themselves, although I'm sure it happens all the time.

Thanks
Tim

Answer
There is a law in Illinois.  She should be paid her deductible in full from the at fault person's insurance policy, not her own policy.  If she was paid from her own policy, then YES they need to subrogate themselves and pay back the policy that was not at fault.  It is no conflict and in fact should be required in order to reflect the risk right in the policies.  She should not even have an occurrence listed on her policy as the at fault policy should pay for everything, deductible included.

I hope this helps.  Below is an excerpt on the law from an attorney friend, Gary Wickert. . .

Automobile: Pro-Rata. “Any insurance carrier whose payment to its insured is reduced by a deductible amount under a policy providing collision coverage is subrogated to its insured’s entire collision loss claim including the deductible amount unless the deductible amount has been otherwise recovered by the insured, but if the deductible amount has been otherwise recovered by the insured it shall not be included in the subrogated loss claim and shall be excluded from the amount of loss pleaded. If the deductible amount is included in subrogated loss claim, the insurance carrier shall pay full pro-rata deductible share to its insured out of net recovery on the subrogated claim. Administrative expenses of the insurance carrier cannot be deducted from the gross recovery, and only incurred expenses of the carrier, such as attorney’s fees, collection fees and adjuster’s fees, may be deducted there from to determine the net recovery. When the insurance carrier is recovering directly from a third-party a claim by means of installments, the insured shall receive his full pro-rata deductible share as soon as such amount is collected and before any part of such recovery is applied to any other use.” Note: Administrative expenses are those incurred as a normal cost of doing business. But “incurred expenses” are “out of pocket” expenses related to a specific claim.

215 I.L. C.S Section 5/143b, Morel v. Coronet Ins. Co., 117 Ill.2d 18 (Ill.1987)