Why I hate the BMV (Warning! Rant ahead!)

[Joshua Randall]

Also, comparison shop for insurance rates. Some companies are more lenient about people with a lapse in insurance or a suspended license.

Visit progressive.com and it will show you "their rates and the rates of top competitors". Call around to some of the smaller companies, as well, and talk to agents to see what they recommend. There is also 1-800-SAFE-AUTO which will sell you the state minimum insurance coverage. Many options.

And next time, get a receipt for EVERYTHING you send to the BMV!

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

To top things off, since I was in a hurry to get there (out of state) I had foolishly left without my new insurance card. I had just switched companies, and the one in my wallet was expired.

"No problem he says. Just take your ticket and your new card up to the courthouse on Monday when you get back. Piece of cake."

So, bright and early Monday morning, I hustle along to the courthouse to pay my fine, and show them my proof of insurance.
Everything goes fine ... or does it?

So, I get taken to jail, and after freaking out my wife when she picks me up at the pokey, we go about doing the court thing, investigating what happened, and taking care of the problem.
Long story short. There's NO way to prove that I actually showed PoI back in 2003.
The court gives me 90 days probation, and I need to pay about $1000.00 in fines, fees etc.

That's about $1000.00 more than I have at the time.

If it ain't too late.

Talk to your insurance company, they should have proof that you were insured during over the time you recieved your tickets/suspension etc.

If you can get that. Get a lawyer. Tell him you have proff you WERE insured during the time the courts say you weren't. He can then go "My client had insurance, went to the courthouse to pay his fine, yet DIDN'T show the proof he needed to yo fix this mess?"

You got hosed, exploited & improperly incarcerated.

Get a good lawyer. He should be able to clean up your record at the very least (no longer paying bonded insurance rate). At best, he can get you all your money back & an apology from the state.

If you can get proof you were insured when the state said you were not, I'd talk to a lawyer & see what he can do. They get people off all the time who've done worse than you.

If it isn't too late, there might be a statute of limitations or something.

 

[Tinner]

Thanks to all for the kind words and support.
For those advising me to fight it. Thanks, but no thanks.
I've already paid every fine but one, got a good deal on insurance, and after all this time ... I just want to drive again. I'm not going to do anything to slow things down now. I need my wheels.
Trust me, I initially tried to fight it, and it just wasn't going to be worth it.

Wanna hear the best part though?
Shortly after making the above post this morning, the wife drove me out to get my last bit of paperwork needed to complete the process. On the way home, we got rear-ended by some dork talking on a cell phone with three screaming kids in the car.
Not our fault. No damage to the truck. Not gonna be a problem.

But it was just the tooth-picked olive on top of the crap sandwich that was my day.
Guess I paid my karma in advance for a while ...

 

[Darth K'Trava]

My friend, Richard, got into hot water with the NC DMV sometime back (before I met him). He was getting ready to move to Phoenix and got pulled for an expired registration sticker on his plate. He told the officer that he was headed for Phoenix and the cop told him that just as long as someone took care of it, no biggie. He leaves. Sometime he sends his parents the $20 for the sticker so they can get a new one for him (a friend out there wrote out a check for it). He gets back 6 months after he left to find out his license had gotten suspended. He looks at his parents and asks where the sticker or the money was. His only response was "what money?". They had taken that money and spent it on something THEY wanted, not his registration sticker. Now, he's got a suspended license and fines he's gotta pay before he can get it back.... Which he can't as he doesn't have the money to do it.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

<snip>

Have you ever heard that song, "I Can't Drive 55" by Sammy Hagar? That song's for you, bub!

 

[D-rock]

Isn't saying you hate the DMV a little redundent. Its like the IRS. Is there anybody in the entire universe that actually likes them.

 

[Evil Monkey]

I've had an experience similar to this as well, or rather, my girlfriend has. She got a ticket for speeding in 1998 (I think) and we had to pay a $120 fine. We go to the place, pay the fine, think everything's kosher. A couple years later, we were employed throwing a newspaper route. Our contract was expiring and needed to be renewed when our boss comes in and tells us her license was suspended a few months beforehand. When we call DMV and ask why, they said it was cuz we never paid the speeding ticket from before! Well, we argued that we did, but of course since we (foolishly) didn't get a receipt, we had to pay the fine all over again in order to get her license reinstated. The really messed up thing is that according to the paperwork, her license was suspended three days BEFORE we got in an car accident, and the police that were at the accident scene didn't say a thing to her about driving on a suspended license.

Bureaucracy is the true root of all evil, I tell you....

 

[glass]

Obviously, things are a bit different in the UK: You don't have to carry your licence and proof of insurance with you when you are driving, so a OP's problem wouldn't arise here.

But we have our own bane: speed cameras. Most of the counties in England and Wales have been installing them right left and centre for the last few years, because they are a big moneyspinner. Fatal accident statistics have gone up pretty much everywhere (), except for the few counties that have no speed cameras, where they are down )).

Anyway, in the space of six months, my brother got flashed by three speed cameras. In each case, he was a few (6-8) mph over the limit, and in two of the three, it was in the early hours of the morning when he was on a dual carriageway, with three lanes all to himself. This means he now has 9 points on his licence. 12 points gets you banned, so he now has to spend all his time looking at the speedo rather than out the windscreen. Yep, that a road safety law which actually discourages you from looking where you were going!

It also means his car insurance premiums have gone through the roof. He was recently quoted nearly £4000 (about $6000) for a Lexus IS200. In the end he managed to cut it down to less than half that, but still, it was a shock.

Hope this isn't considered political, but I just wanted to give a counterpoint from 'across the pond'.


glass.