DUI and Car Insurance
Getting convicted for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) in Florida is a painful and expensive experience. In addition to the fines, potential jail time, driver’s license suspension, and driving school, when you finally get your license back you’ll have yet another expense: more expensive – often MUCH more expensive – car insurance.
Recognizing the sad reality that many people convicted of DUI will “sin again” – and that drunk driving is inherently dangerous and liable to lead to accidents which can damage property and harm other people – the state of Florida requires much higher insurance coverage for people who have been convicted of drunk driving.
After a DUI conviction, your insurance company will have to send a FR44 form to the state’s Bureau of Financial Responsibility before you can get your driver’s license back. This, of course, informs your insurance company that you have been convicted of a DUI, so there is no way to hide a DUI from your insurance company. This form provides proof that you have at a minimum the following insurance coverage:
- $100,000 per person / $300,000 per accident bodily injury liability
- $50,000 of property damage liability. This $50,000 coverage may be part of the $300,000 per accident bodily injury liability.
By comparison, the minimum insurance requirements for financially responsible people who do NOT have a DUI conviction is $10,000 in personal injury protection (PIP) and $10,000 in property damage liability (PDL). So DUI drivers must have five times the property damage insurance, and they are required to have bodily injury liability, which is optional for other drivers. The DUI driver still has to have the $10,000 “no fault” PIP coverage.
The cost for filing the FR44 form is only $15.00. But that’s not what makes DUI insurance expensive. Obviously, if you only had the minimum required coverage before and now have to have insurance with the higher limits that will be a lot more expensive. But even if you already had the “100/300/50” coverage, your insurance rates are still going to go up a LOT.
If you have an otherwise good driving record, and have been in your insurance company’s “preferred” category, a DUI conviction will pretty much automatically knock you out of “preferred” into at least standard, and likelier high risk. This means the premiums will go WAY up. If you drive a relatively new car and have to have collision coverage on your car, the collision coverage will also be a lot more expensive. It’s not unusual for a DUI conviction to result in a premium increase of $1,500/year.
After a DUI conviction, it’s a good idea to shop around a bit for insurance. Some of the major insurance companies are much less forgiving of a DUI conviction than others. Some are basically not interested in insuring DUI drivers and will raise your rates enough that you’ll want to look elsewhere. There are other companies, often some of the smaller ones, which are more aggressive and will give better prices.
As if all of that isn’t bad enough, if you apply for life insurance after a DUI conviction, you may find that the rates you have to pay for life insurance are also significantly higher than they would have been otherwise.
If you’ve been arrested for DUI, it’s important to contact an experienced DUI attorney, such as Fort Lauderdale DUI attorney Brian Silber, immediately. More expensive insurance is only one of the many headaches you’ll face with a DUI conviction on your record. A good DUI lawyer may be able to help you avoid a conviction.