All vehicles in Illinois must carry liability insurance with basic car insurance coverage. Type of coverage required;
It is a mandatory requirement which if not followed the driver may incur a list of penalties. To add to that, all drivers from Illinois are required to carry uninsured motorist coverage that has the same minimum coverage.
If you do not have adequate liability auto insurance coverage and you are caught driving without insurance you will be charged with a petty offense and incur minimum penalties including license suspension. The petty offense may not earn you jail time or prison time in the county jail, but you will be required to pay a modest fine of $1,000.
You will only spend days in jail if you cause a serious accident. It can also lead to your driver’s license suspension or your vehicle’s registrations being suspended for 3 months. A license reinstatement fee of $100 and submission of proof of insurance will be needed before the suspension can be lifted. When the offense is repeated several times, you will suffer more stiff penalties.
When you buy that new ride, and you can’t wait to hit the roads and join other car users. The first thing that you should do after vehicle registration is start looking into the best car insurance options you can get on coverage for the property. Get an insurance quote and find out about low-income auto insurance programs. It is illegal to drive without car insurance in Illinois and other forty-eight states in the US. When an accident occurs, the victims or the people afflicted by the accident will likely incur huge and hefty bills.
The medical cost/medical bills and all hospital bills that you may have to pay can be beyond what most people can afford if there there is a lack of insurance coverage. Having an auto insurance policy will enable car users can pay damages that may occur after an accident through the insurance policy that they have.
When you decide to drive your car without having an insurance policy, you will be caught by a police officer when they ask you to pull over for a routine traffic stop or speeding violation. Here are other additional penalties and consequences that you are likely to incur when you drive without insurance coverage.
Getting a license plate suspension is one of the legal penalties incurred after a person has been caught driving without insurance in Illinois. When you get an automatic suspension, it means that you no longer have driving privileges until you pay the reinstatement fee and provide proof of coverage.
For the suspension of the vehicle's license to be lifted, the financial responsibility laws require you to pay the reinstatement fee and show proof of insurance. So, suppose it is the first time that you have been caught driving without insurance. In that case, you will not have to wait for long before your driver’s license can be reinstated, and you can continue driving. If it is not your first time, it may take longer for your license to be reinstated.
If you get into an accident, there needs to be proof of who the driver at-fault driver is. After getting into an accident, you should take pictures of the crime scene to prove who was responsible for the accident. When you get involved in an accident, and it is established that you were the at-fault driver, you will have to pay the victim for damages to their personal property.
Normally if you are insured, the insurance company under the insurance cover you have taken will bear financial responsibility for the damages and medical expenses incurred by the victim after an accident. However, if you are not insured, it is not a walk in the park. You will first have to answer to the fact that you were driving without insurance. You will have to pay legal fines to reinstate your driver’s license and provide proof of insurance.
Aside from that, the victim of the accident has a right to seek compensation. If they decide to sue you, you will have to give direct compensation since you do not have coverage. One of the main factors that will determine how much you will pay is the extent of the damage caused. In some instances, you may have to sell off some of your assets to compensate the accident victim where you were at fault.
The worst scenario is the serious long-lasting and life-changing consequences you have to bear especially if you have a history of reckless driving violations and a bad driving record in your community.
You have to prove that you have insurance. It is not enough to say that you do. Proof of insurance is documentation that shows that you are covered and that the policy you have meets that state of Illinois minimum requirement. The proof of insurance can either be the small car that the insurance company has sent you, or it can be a printout of the card. Depending on the state you live in, you can show mobile evidence if you do not have a hard copy of the evidence showing that you are insured.
The proof of insurance card should contain:
If you were driving without proof of insurance and you receive a ticket, you do not need to incur the fine if you did had proof of insurance at the date when you received the ticket. To cancel the ticket you received from the law enforcement officer, you need to send details of your proof of insurance to the relevant authorities. It is important to remember to carry a copy of proof of insurance while driving in Chicago, Illinois.
It is important to have uninsured motorist coverage on your car. Insurance requirements in Illinois state that uninsured motorist coverage becomes part of every auto insurance policy.
The minimum liability coverage for the uninsured motorist insurance policy should be $25000 per injured person. It can be $50000 if more than one person has been injured in the accident.
If you do not want this additional type of coverage to be this high and prefer cheap car insurance, you can sign a document that shows that you want to decrease the coverage. However, a legal advisor may advise you against doing that.
They can suggest that it would be best for you to have as much underinsured and insured motorist coverage as you can if possible. This way you will have direct cash payment assistance if you get into an accident. Only look into low-priced car insurance or affordable car insurance policies if you cannot afford the set liability car insurance covers.
It can be hard to deal with the driver of an uninsured vehicle since they do not have an automobile insurance policy. As a driver with a clean driving record, you need to prove that they actually caused the accident for your insurance company to cater for the costs. If you sue a driver that is on the road without insurance for vehicle expenses, you may not get much from them. In fact, it is not really a worthy cause. The uninsured driver has the option of filing for bankruptcy.
Take advantage of the free initial consultation and talk to your attorney about insurance laws. Get to know the options if you were caught driving without insurance or valid insurance. Call the Dohman Law Group, talk to a Rolling Meadows traffic attorney, and book your free initial consultation.
