Caught driving without auto insurance?

In some compulsory insurance states, insurers must notify the proper state agency that a motorist’s coverage has lapsed, but much time often elapses before the overworked state agency takes action. In most compulsory insurance states, police officers can confiscate a motorists license tags if the motorist cannot produce proof of insurance.

SR22 and Proof Of Insurance

Tags seldom are seized until motorists commit offenses that bring them to the attention of the police. Even if insurance dodgers are prosecuted and convicted of violating compulsory insurance laws, they have little to fear. Many judges, who deal routinely with far more serious offenses, are quite lenient with someone who does nothing worse than refuse to buy insurance. In short, regardless of their reason for not purchasing coverage, insurance dodgers face little risk of meaningful punishment. Find cheap sr22 insurance here.

For these reasons, compulsory laws are viewed by many as futile. In the states that have experimented with such laws over the past several decades, every imaginable means of enforcement has been tried and retried at one time or other with the same results: little difference in the percentage of insured drivers. With extremely- vigorous (and costly) methods of enforcement, some states have managed to reduce their uninsured motorist level somewhat.

Another major argument against compulsory laws is that they are too costly to administer. In states with compulsory laws, besides processing millions of forms showing evidence of insurance, these departments must also process many other kinds of forms as well: changes of registration, new registrations, insurance cancellations and terminations, plus changes in vehicles, insurance companies, and names. In addition, insurance companies have substantial expenses in notifying state authorities whenever a policyholders coverage lapses or expires.

Proper enforcement of compulsory laws requires an extensive data processing system, special layers of state bureaucracy, and enough state police officers to locate and confiscate the license plates of uninsured drivers. Apart from the fact that crime-fighting resources and highway safety patrolmen must be diverted to track down uninsured motorists, no state can afford the vast amount of funds needed to follow up, identify and punish all insurance people who avoid their responsibility.

Of all the states with compulsory laws, Missouri has carried out the most effective and extensive enforcement program. Supervised by the Motor Vehicles Department, record-keeping and forms preparation are done by a computer system provided by the Department of Transportation. The Department of Public Safety employs some 50 staff police officers who confiscate about 19,000 sets of license plates a year.