Got a ticket for driving with no insurance...what to expect?

[gspotlover]

I kinda f*ukked up and was caught driving w/o insurance a month ago and the court date is coming up soon.

Please don't be judgmental on me as I was going through hardship.

My insurance had only lapsed for a few weeks as I was going through very tough financial times...and it was either paying the mortgage and putting food on the table or paying for insurance.

What should I do?

Hire a traffic ticket specialist to represent me or go plead guilty and ask for leniency?
They want $600 and up just to represent me!

Any help and direction would be appreciated.

 

[punter]

What do you think would have happened if you were involved in an accident causing the death of the sole provider of another family?

 

[GameBoy27]

That's because the fine for a first conviction is $5,000 + 25% surcharge = $6,250

The courts take driving without insurance very seriously.

 

[gspotlover]

What do you think would have happened if you were involved in an accident causing the death of the sole provider of another family?

While I appreciate your reply, I am not asking for judgmental opinions.
I already know I fuked up and I just want to know the best possible outcome for me.

 

[JohnHenry]

Go to Early Resolution, and see what you can accomplish there. If nothing, you can still plead not guilty, and go find some legal assistance.

 

[Shakeandbake]

What is your previous driving record like ? Any speeding tickets etc ? The reason I ask is that if you want to throw yourself on the mercy of the court make damn sure that you are not a repeat offender .... seen this go the wrong way and it was not pretty

 

[KBear]

Is your insurance in place now, or put in place after the ticket was given? Would think the courts would go easy on you if it could be shown to be an administrative type error. Should talk to a lawyer or the points guys.

 

[fuji]

While I appreciate your reply, I am not asking for judgmental opinions.
I already know I fuked up and I just want to know the best possible outcome for me.

While I appreciate your desire not to be judged, it is ludicrous to ask us not to judge you. You will get more help and sympathy if your stop making excuses for your unacceptable and illegal behavior.

At least you should show some remorse and then maybe people will help you figure out the best way to deal with the situation you are in.

You showed a real lack of concern for others and prioritized your own selfish interests over the lives is other people. Expect to be judged for that.

 

[Big Sleazy]

What do you think would have happened if you were involved in an accident causing the death of the sole provider of another family?

I would expect the insurance company to deny you coverage and try and force you to pay the costs. Thus eliminating any liability on their part as Insurance like Banking is just one gigantic ponzi scheme.

BS

 

[fuji]

I would expect the insurance company to deny you coverage and try and force you to pay the costs. Thus eliminating any liability on their part as Insurance like Banking is just one gigantic ponzi scheme.

BS

He actually didn't have insurance. He was driving around with no protection for others on the road. Remember that your insurance protects the other driver from you.

 

[atlantica]

big Sleazy. Perhaps read the article first before you spew your ignorance. The man has no insurance. So his insurance company would not pay. Get it? He has none.
However, his victim's insurance company would look after their client and then take him to court for all damages paid.

 

[Barca]

The suggestion for early resolution is a good one. If you have insurance in place now, show that both before and after the incident, you were covered and the period without coverage was a momentary lapse in judgement or forgetfulness.

Remember that the $5000 is not automatic. I have heard of several instances where drivers were fined but not nearly that much, more in the $1000 range.

At this point, it's about mitigating the damage. You're going to pay something, you can't avoid that now. It's an issue of how much. By proving to be generally responsible and law-abiding, courts are generally lenient as they understand the fine to be more than most people can afford. But if you can't show you are a long-time buyer of insurance, are now covered and are sorry it happened, there's not much that can help you.

 

[oldjones]

I kinda f*ukked up and was caught driving w/o insurance a month ago and the court date is coming up soon.

Please don't be judgmental on me as I was going through hardship.

My insurance had only lapsed for a few weeks as I was going through very tough financial times...and it was either paying the mortgage and putting food on the table or paying for insurance.

What should I do?

Hire a traffic ticket specialist to represent me or go plead guilty and ask for leniency?
They want $600 and up just to represent me!

Any help and direction would be appreciated.

My car—which I needed to earn my living—was totaled by a guy with no insurance. He ran a red light and T-boned my passenger-side. He could just as easily have been traveling the other way and killed me.

I have zero sympathy. You and he and everyone else who's so irresponsible, negligent and stupid as to do the most dangerous thing you'll likely ever do and to choose your personal convenience over acting like a thinking adult should be riding the bus. In the infants' Section.

Show up with valid insurance and ask the JP to understand how selfish, stupid and dangerous you once were but never will be again. I hope she tells you she'll adjourn so you can get a representative and then throws the book at you, but she might have had a run of cases she felt good about, and want to extend a bit of mercy you don't deserve in the slightest.

No insurance=no driving, just like drinking means no driving.

 

[Barca]

big Sleazy. Perhaps read the article first before you spew your ignorance. The man has no insurance. So his insurance company would not pay. Get it? He has none.
However, his victim's insurance company would look after their client and then take him to court for all damages paid.

Correct. In Ontario, insurance covers the client, not the one causing the accident. The only scenario where his irresponsible behaviour causes a lack of coverage is where he might hit a pedestrian (there's no insurance there) or he hits another uninsured driver.

 

[oldjones]

big Sleazy. Perhaps read the article first before you spew your ignorance. The man has no insurance. So his insurance company would not pay. Get it? He has none.
However, his victim's insurance company would look after their client and then take him to court for all damages paid.

Under no fault, that's how it works all round. IdiotBoy's accident costs—his own, his victims, the ambulance and other services—would then fall to all the rest of us, through the uninsured pool and we'd be looking to the various victims' insurers to recover by seizing his house, the wreck of his car and any other assets he might have.

 

[oldjones]

Correct. In Ontario, insurance covers the client, not the one causing the accident. The only scenario where his irresponsible behaviour causes a lack of coverage is where he might hit a pedestrian (there's no insurance there) or he hits another uninsured driver.

Not quite. Each company promptly pays its client. But if it ended there, they'd be setting up a no-pain 'moral hazard' where bad behaviour's paid for, even rewarded. Anathema for insurers. Between themselves insurance companies determine fault, demand restitution from the 'at fault' insurer, and pass around paybacks. Or they go after the actual guy, if he's got assets and had no insurer. And idiotboy did say he was keeping the mortgage going for them.

He shoulda walked, biked, hitched, or paid and taken the bus. Instead he chose to widen his bum in the warm and burn expensive gas, and along with the respect ordinary folks deserve, on the assumption they're decently intelligent and responsible adults.

Clearly he wasn't a good enough driver to avoid being caught, so there's no reason to believe his accident-free interval should give us confidence either in his skills or how lucky he is.

 

[KBear]

They want $600 and up just to represent me!

You talked to the ticket guy, what did he say could be the outcome?

 

[curiousandlooking]

ok wait - did your insurance expire because you had not paid and they did not send you a new card with updated dates or did you cancel it? Most insurance companies actually renew automatically and bill you. In the past I thought that if I did not pay they would just cancel my policy - but they did not and I was on the hook for several months payment for a car I was no longer driving. I would pay your premium immediately and ask them to send you your new card. O am sure that they will bill you for the full time from when it had expired - which would mean that when you go to court you can show that you had insurance but no proof when stopped. Much smaller ticket.

my $0.02 worth

 

[buttercup]

Contact your insurance company, and ask them this question:

Given that I am a good long-standing customer of yours, but I inadvertently allowed my car insurance to lapse by forgetting to pay this latest premium on time; please now suppose I'd had an accident, during the lapsed period, and was now making a claim. Assuming your company rules permit you to deny the claim, would you actually have denied it, given that this was obviously an inadvertent error on my part, and I've been a good customer for X years.

Now, if the insurance company says: We take every avenue to avoid paying, and you gave us all the excuse we need, you're toast.

But they just might say something like: We're not making it a commitment, nor stating it as a general rule, but yes, under these circumstances, we might well have paid out on such a claim, as a matter of showing support for our good customers.
If they say that, you have a good case, because you were effectivley not "driving without insurance".
There's a small chance something positive might come if you ask the question. It's a certainty the other way, if you don't ask.

If you think you've got a case you might win, go to trial (accompanied by an experienced trial lawyer). (In any event, you have to go through all the pre-trial stuff, in which they might offer an incentive to plead gulity.)

If you are prepared to plead to a lesser offence (or a smaller fine) use one of the many paralegal firms that advertise that they won't charge you if they don't succeed in accomplishing that.

Go with the specialists: paralegals are v.good (better than lawyers) at pleading down, but not trials.

 

[barnacler]

You showed a real lack of concern for others and prioritized your own selfish interests over the lives is other people. Expect to be judged for that.

Unfortunately, that is nonsense. The lack of insurance is purely a financial risk, because here in Ontario the other party's insurance company will pay for their damages, so it makes absolutely no difference to the party you hit (assuming it is your fault) whether you have insurance or not. I know because I was hit by just such a driver, and I have never had an easier insurance claim.

Those of you who are condemning him are wrong in the sense that what he is doing is merely a financial risk to himself.