Personal Protective Equipment

Waiver Of Subrogation By State

Workers’ compensation laws are state-specific—each state has its own law/act addressing workers’ compensation insurance rules and regulations.

Concurrently, the ability for businesses to enact workers’ compensation waiver of subrogation clauses in contracts and/or for insurance companies to agree is mandated at the state level.

• Some states specifically include the ability to waive subrogation rights within their workers’ compensation laws.
• Other states do not address it. In other words, their statutes don’t expressly allow or disallow waiving subrogation rights.
• Some states explicitly prohibit employers and insurance carriers from waiving subrogation rights.

In Florida, state statute allows waivers of subrogation and case law supports an insurance carrier’s right to waive subrogation.

In Alabama, the workers’ compensation act neither includes nor excludes an employer’s or carrier’s right to agree to waivers of subrogation.

Kentucky asserts that it is unlawful for one employer to require another employer to waive its rights of subrogation by contract and insurance carriers are prohibited from adding waiver of subrogation endorsements to workers’ compensation insurance policies.

Types of Workers’ Compensation Waivers of Subrogation

Specific Waivers Of Subrogation

Specific waivers of subrogation mean that one party agrees to give up its rights to sue one individual or entity for their costs related to incidents where the specific individual or entity could be construed to be responsible.

For instance, Tiny’s Timber agrees by contract to waive subrogation rights of Peoples Paper Mill. Tiny’s also performs work for Larry’s Lumber Yard and Millennial Mill but has not waived subrogation rights with them. In this case, Tiny’s insurance agent advises that a “Specific” Waiver of Subrogation endorsement on Tiny’s policy will provide appropriate coverage according to the contract.