The Law Offices of James M. Freeman, P.C.

Recently I attended traffic court with one of my clients. I am always shocked to see the light punishment people receive for not having insurance. For instance, I saw a woman plead guilty to blowing a stop sign and no insurance. She was fined $25.00 for blowing the stop and $50.00 for not having insurance. The court then assessed $55.00 in court costs for a whopping total of $130.00 in fines and costs.

I have a friend who hypothesizes that there are two types of people who pay for insurance. First, there are those who have assets to protect. Second, there are those who do not have assets, but who feel a moral obligation to follow the law. He points out that for someone who has no assets it is much cheaper to forgo insurance coverage.

When I bring this up with the Corporation Counsel or State's Attorney, they argue that under the Illinois Financial Responsibility laws an uninsured driver risks having their license suspended, but I don't see that happening when I'm at traffic court. I just see people like our aforementioned lucky lady getting hit with small fines and walking out of court with her license in hand.

Uninsured motorists pose a special risk to many cyclists as most car-free cyclists do not have uninsured motorists coverage. Drivers, on the other hand, often have uninsured/under insured motorist coverage that would be activated in the event of an accident with an uninsured driver. Since car-free cyclists do not carry such coverage, they are especially vulnerable to an uninsured driver.

I believe it would make sense to have fines for driving uninsured outweigh the cost of obtaining insurance in the first place. One would also think that the insurance lobby would love to see stiffer penalties for infractions involving financial responsibility laws in Illinois as it would offer more business for Insurance companies. As long as it is more cost effective to drive without insurance people will continue to do it. If we take away the financial motivation to forgo insurance perhaps we would see a drop in the number of uninsured motorists.