Steep Penalties if You Don’t Carry Louisiana Auto Insurance
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is working hard to make sure that everyone in his state driving a car is carrying auto insurance. Currently, one out of seven drivers in Louisiana is uninsured. But with the signing of HB 1053, Jindal is steepening the penalties for residents who choose to drive without auto insurance. This information comes from Matthew Morrisset’s Online Auto Insurance News article “Uninsured Drivers in Louisiana Facing Greater Consequences.”
Police officers in Louisiana used to only be able to tow an automobile if it was causing some type of danger to the public, but they now have free reign to tow any auto where the driver has been caught without insurance. Once you’ve gotten in trouble for not carrying Louisiana auto insurance, your fines can be anywhere from $100 for a first time offense to $700 for a third time offense. These changes take effect August 1st of this year, so it’s definitely time to check out auto insurance rates if you don’t currently have coverage.
There is a “No Pay, No Play” rule in place in Louisiana. Anyone involved in an auto accident in the state will be in big financial troubles if they don’t have an auto insurance policy, even if they were not at fault in the accident. For the first $25,000 in property damage and the first $15,000 in medical bills related to the accident, any driver who did not have auto insurance coverage will not be paid out, even if the other driver was at fault. That is financially scary and can be devastating, especially since you have little to no control when someone else is at fault in an auto accident. The bottom line is that it is cheaper to carry auto insurance than deal with the risks you could encounter if you don’t have it.
