By Patrick Turcotte, COO, Docutrax. Last reviewed: 27 August 2026.

A waiver of subrogation is an endorsement on a third party's own insurance policy in which that party's insurer gives up its right to recover payments from your organization after paying a claim. It sits on their policy, not yours, and it does not by itself stop anyone else from suing you.

The insurer waives its own claim, not your organization's exposure

Subrogation is the right an insurer picks up after it pays a claim: the right to step into its own insured's shoes and go after whoever actually caused the loss. A waiver of subrogation gives up that right as to a particular party. On the general liability side, the operative language, from ISO's CG 24 04 endorsement, works in substance like this: the insurer waives any right of recovery it may have against the person or organization shown in the Schedule, for payments made on the insured's ongoing operations or on its completed work falling within the products-completed operations hazard, done under a contract with that party. On a scheduled form the waiver reaches only the party named; on a blanket form it reaches any party the insured has agreed in a written contract to waive against.

Two things follow directly from that wording. First, the waiver runs from the third party's insurer toward your organization, not the reverse. Second, on a scheduled endorsement it protects only the entity named, so a waiver obtained for one project or one named entity does not extend to an affiliate, a different project, or a party added after the fact unless the policy carries a blanket waiver that picks them up.

General liability and workers' compensation waivers are separate endorsements on separate policies

A contract that requires "a waiver of subrogation" without specifying which coverage is asking for one endorsement or two, and it matters which. The general liability waiver, ISO CG 24 04, sits on the GL policy and addresses property damage and bodily injury claims arising from the third party's work. The workers' compensation waiver, NCCI form WC 00 03 13 in most states and a bureau equivalent in the independent states such as Texas, sits on the WC policy and is a different endorsement entirely, one that reads: "We will not enforce our right against the person or organization named in the Schedule," and applies only where the insured performed work under a written contract requiring the agreement.

Getting one does not get you the other. A subcontractor's certificate showing a GL waiver in place says nothing about whether the WC policy carries the equivalent endorsement, and the reverse is equally true. Where a contract requires both, both need to be confirmed separately.

A workers' compensation waiver does not stop the injured employee from suing

This is the point most often misunderstood, and it runs the opposite direction from what a general contractor typically assumes. A WC waiver of subrogation stops the subcontractor's workers' compensation carrier from pursuing its own lien or reimbursement claim against the named party after paying the injured worker's benefits. It does not stop the injured employee from bringing a separate lawsuit against that same party. The employee's own right to sue is not the carrier's right, and the endorsement only waives the carrier's.

The practical effect can work against the party who asked for the waiver. Without the waiver, an employee who wins a third-party judgment typically has that recovery reduced by the amount the WC carrier already paid, since the carrier's lien comes out of it. Whether the waiver also gives up that lien is unsettled in most states. The endorsement's wording gives up the carrier's right to pursue the responsible party, and courts are divided on whether it reaches the separate right to be reimbursed out of the employee's recovery. Where it does, the employee can collect the workers' compensation benefit and the third-party judgment without an offset, which removes a lever from settling the very suit the waiver was never capable of preventing.

A few states will not enforce a workers' compensation waiver at all

Enforceability is not uniform. New Hampshire prohibits the waiver by statute, and Kentucky makes it unlawful to require another employer to waive its remedies under the Act. Missouri voids prospective waivers in construction contracts, Kansas voids the waiver requirement in private construction contracts with narrow exceptions for wrap-up and protective policies, and Oregon voids contractual waiver requirements in construction contracts as well. Maine and Wisconsin permit the endorsement but treat the carrier's right to reimbursement out of a third-party recovery as separate from subrogation, so that recovery can still be reached. In the monopolistic states, workers' compensation is written through a state fund rather than a carrier, and waiver availability follows the fund's rules rather than a standard endorsement. Most states allow the waiver, but a contract requiring one where it will not be honored is asking for something the paper cannot deliver.

Additional insured status is not the same protection as a waiver of subrogation

The two get treated as interchangeable and they are not. Additional insured status makes your organization an insured under the third party's policy for liability arising out of that party's work, so the policy can defend and indemnify you against claims brought by an injured pedestrian, a neighboring property owner, or that third party's own injured employee. A waiver of subrogation addresses a different direction entirely: it stops the third party's own insurer from coming after your organization once it has paid out on a claim. Having one does not establish the other, and a certificate or contract that treats "additional insured" and "waiver of subrogation" as one ask is asking for two separate endorsements under one label.

Additional insured status also does not automatically prevent a subrogation claim on its own. Coverage gaps, a mismatch between ongoing and completed operations coverage, or a policy type that does not extend additional insured status, workers' compensation being the clearest example and most professional liability forms the next, can leave a subrogation path open even where additional insured status is properly in place.

The certificate's waiver of subrogation box is a representation, not the endorsement

The current ACORD 25 form carries a SUBR WVD column next to the coverage lines, and checking it is meant to indicate a waiver applies to that coverage. The form itself is direct about what that checkbox does not establish. Its own disclaimer states that where subrogation is waived, "subject to the terms and conditions of the policy, certain policies may require an endorsement," and that "a statement on this certificate does not confer rights to the certificate holder in lieu of such endorsement."

In practice, that means the box being checked is the certificate issuer's representation, not confirmation that the endorsement is attached, correctly worded, or names your organization specifically. Where a contract requires a waiver of subrogation and the exposure or contract value justifies confirming it rather than assuming it, verifying the actual endorsement is a Certificate plus Endorsement Review question, not something the certificate alone can answer. That is a proportionate-review decision, not a rule that every waiver needs endorsement-level confirmation regardless of the relationship.

A different waiver of subrogation shows up in construction contracts

Worth separating from everything above: many construction contracts, particularly AIA-style agreements, include a waiver of subrogation between the owner, architect, and contractor covering property damage under a builder's risk or property policy. That waiver runs between the contracting parties for property loss, not between a subcontractor's liability insurer and an upstream party for bodily injury or third-party property damage. It is a related idea, insurers giving up a right to sue after paying a claim, but it sits on a different policy type and protects a different relationship than the GL and WC waivers described above. A contract referencing "waiver of subrogation" without specifying which one is asking for should not be assumed to mean the liability-side endorsement by default.