Montana Supreme Court Confirms Insurer Is Victim Entitled To Restitution

Court-ordered restitution to be paid by a criminal to a subrogated insurance company has become a major source of revenue for carriers in the last couple of years.

Restitution is the recovery from an economic loss suffered as the result of the commission of a crime. An often-overlooked area of recovery for subrogated carriers is the possibility of obtaining court-ordered restitution from a criminal defendant as part of their sentencing.

Approximately two-thirds of the states provide for the availability of some sort of court-ordered restitution to be paid to victims of crime.

The states that do allow for restitution often have conflicting statutes and criteria with regard to how, when, and to whom restitution may be awarded.

Although restitution statutes have been progressively getting stronger, studies show that nearly half of crime victims are not awarded any sort of restitution – usually because the victim fails to request it.