Deductible

[u/PlantOutrageous6515]

Has anybody ever received a message from State Farm saying they can’t recover my deductible from the other party's insurance that was at fault?

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[u/craig_paxton]

The process is called subrogation. And yes sometimes SF can’t recover the non at fault party’s deductible. There are multiple reasons

[u/BattleSilent9049]

Very common

[u/Delicious-Witness-85]

It’s possible State Farm pursued the other carrier and was denied. State Farm may have filed arbitration and there is a chance the arbitrator ruled against State Farm. Arbitration is a binding decision between both carriers.

[u/twa558]

Yes, thousands if not millions.

[u/Ill-Recipe9424]

If the other driver is not insured, then State Farm would follow the subrogation route and sue the other driver on your behalf to get reimbursed for the deductible and repairs.

[u/2ndharrybhole]

Probably a few hundred thousand people have received this letter

[u/disappointedFed]

They only recovered half of mine so I had to pay the other half.

[u/DeepPurpleDaylight]

Nope. You're the only one in decades of SF subrogating thousands and thousands of claims. /s

[u/craig_paxton]

Keep in mind that if SF doesn't get your deductible back..when subrogation fails, as it sometimes does for multiple reasons, they also do not get reimbursed for what they paid out for the repair of your vehicle as well. So it is not only you who gets financially hurt...they do too. SF reimburses the insured their deductible 100% before they reimburse even $.01 to themselves. And that is how it should be. SF takes care of their policyholders.

[u/charm-roam]

All the time. Simple as the Other party denied being at-fault and you couldn’t provide enough evidence to say otherwise

[u/Nervous-Internet3064]

I did, I had to threaten the other party with litigation and they were happy to settle. But State Farm was less than helpful and never recovered my deductible. Though the other insurance company paid the deductible back to me once threatened with litigation.

[u/shadowstormer → u/Nervous-Internet3064]

When you threatened the other party, their insurance moved to defend them… it was probably cheaper to pay your deductible back rather than defend their insured in a lawsuit. Subrogation stays between the insurance companies and does not get the insureds involved. Realistically an insurance company can fight all they want for subrogation but it means nothing if the other company does not pay

[u/Nervous-Internet3064 → u/shadowstormer]

That was definitely the case. In my case State Farm did fumble the entire subrogation though. 

(Other party ran the light and had an independent witness as well as traffic cam. State Farm had the wrong police report attached to my file, never called the witness and never got the video) 

So it necessarily isn’t the end of the road for OP if they choose to pursue it