Can Your License Be Suspended for Not Having Insurance?

While it is possible to have your license suspended because you don’t have insurance, it is wholly contingent on state laws. Some states, like Virginia and New Hampshire, don’t require insurance unless you have an accident where you can’t demonstrate financial responsibility. Other states, such as California, may have penalties and fines instead. The length of the suspension also varies by state laws, as you can read about in our auto insurance FAQs.

Take a look at how each state handles driving without insurance when it comes to license suspensions.

A driver’s license suspension means that your legal driving privilege gets revoked for a period of time. When your license is suspended, you must meet certain conditions, such as paying fines and showing proof of insurance, to get your license back.

How to Check if Your License Is Suspended

To find out whether you have a suspended license, call or visit the Department of Motor Vehicles where your license is from. Speak with a representative who can tell you whether you have a suspended license and what you can do to reinstate it.

How Do I Reinstate My License?

If your license gets suspended because you don’t have insurance, you may need to show proof of insurance and pay all fines and reinstatement fees before your license gets reinstated. Fulfill the proof of insurance requirement by filing an SR-22, also known as a “Certificate of Financial Responsibility.”¹

Here are the fines you’ll need to pay and whether or not you will need to show proof of insurance in your state.

How long your license will be suspended depends on the state where your license was issued. While states like Iowa, Maryland, and Washington have no suspension penalties, states like Maine, Missouri, and New Hampshire will suspend your license until you demonstrate proof of insurance.

Many other states have suspension durations lasting 30 to 90 days. A few states — like Mississippi, New Jersey, and South Dakota — suspend licenses for up to one year. See below to learn how long your license will be suspended if you don’t have insurance in your state.

If you get caught driving without insurance, it’s not just a license suspension that you need to deal with. State penalties range from $20 to $1,500 for the driving offense. States such as Maine, Oregon, and Rhode Island will also suspend your car registration. When your license gets suspended, your insurer may cancel your car insurance in many cases.

Here are the penalties in each state.

An insurance lapse is a period of time during which you have no insurance coverage. An insurance lapse happens when you fail to pay your premium, get dropped from your insurance company, or cancel your coverage. When a lapse occurs, you are not insured.

What Causes an Insurance Lapse?

There are many possible causes of an insurance lapse, including these scenarios:

• You don’t pay for the policy.
• Your insurance company cancels your policy midterm for fraud or misrepresentation on your application, or because your license or registration has been suspended.
• Your insurance company decides not to renew your insurance policy because you have too many accidents or tickets on your record, or simply because it no longer provides specific coverages or any coverages in your area.

What Should I Do After an Insurance Lapse?

What you should do after an insurance lapse will depend on why your insurance lapsed in the first place. If not paying the bill results in a lapse, paying the premium is often enough to reinstate the policy. If your insurance lapse is due to accidents, tickets, or a license suspension, you may need to shop for cheap auto insurance to find an insurance carrier willing to underwrite the risk of a bad driver.

To legally register your car with the DMV, you’ll need to show proof of financial responsibility, which usually means auto insurance. If others are driving your car, you may exclude yourself as a driver on your policy and maintain the insurance.

Is It Hard to Get Car Insurance if My License Has Been Suspended?

It will be more difficult to find insurance if your license gets suspended. Car insurance companies don’t want to insure people who are high-risk drivers or aren’t legally allowed to drive. You may need to shop around to find a company that will insure you.

Will My Rates Increase After My License Is Suspended?

Your insurance prices will increase if your license gets suspended. The suspension is marked by points on your license, which is how insurance companies rate you when you buy insurance.²

If you have an accident without insurance, you are responsible for the consequences of that accident. This means you must pay the medical costs of anyone you injure in the accident (as you don’t have bodily injury liability coverage) and any vehicle or other property repair costs (as you don’t have property damage coverage). On top of the liability insurance costs that you must pay to others, you are responsible for fixing your own car out of your pocket, since you don’t have full coverage to protect your car.

You could be sued if you don’t have the funds to pay for the damages. If you lose the lawsuit, the judgment could let the other party put a lien on your property, such as your house, or file for wage garnishment.

Every state except Virginia and New Hampshire has its own minimum insurance requirements. Most states have at least 25/50/25 liability requirements, which means you need $25,000 in per-person bodily injury coverage, $50,000 in per-accident bodily injury coverage, and $25,000 in property damage coverage.

Take a look at how each state varies.

If you live in a state that requires auto insurance, your license could be suspended if you are caught driving without insurance. Each state is different and will penalize drivers by suspending the license, suspending the vehicle registration, issuing a fine, or all three.