You’ve been charged under the “Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act.”, also known as a “No Insurance” charge at the roadside. And now you have a $5,000 ticket that you have to defend in court. What just happened?
I called my insurance company while I was at the roadside and fixed my insurance policy
Many clients genuinely were not aware that the car was not insured. They were shocked when the officer pulled them over and handed them the $5,000 ticket. In a panic, they call their insurance company and reinstate the policy immediately at the roadside or get insurance the same day.
If I fixed the problem that same day, does my charge go away?
The law is clear. If you own a vehicle, that vehicle must be insured.
And, it does not matter if the car was not insured for 1 day, 1 month, or if it was fixed within 1 hour. All that matters (according to the legislation) is that the car was NOT insured at the moment the Police Officer stopped your vehicle and ran the insurance check.
All the law has to prove is that you were uninsured when you received the ticket. If you had insurance before, if you got insurance after – these are not defences. This may help demonstrate to a prosecutor that you were not driving for extended periods of time without insurance. But, according to the law, you are guilty of the offence of having No Insurance.
The No Insurance legislation is very specific
It’s important to understand that the lawmakers purposely wrote the legislation to be very black and white, without any levels of “gray”. You either had insurance or not. That is the basis of the legislation. Reasons as to why you did not have it, or the timing of when you got insurance back again, do not change the ticket. If you did not have insurance, then you are guilty as per the Automobile Insurance Act.
So is there any way to fix this?
The only fix is to get the vehicle insured if you are continuing to drive it. This does not help the ticket or the fine, but it will prevent you from getting future tickets, which almost double in penalties. A second No Insurance ticket carries a minimum fine of $10,000, etc. So, even though it does not help your current situation, getting insured will prevent any future incidents.
Get legal advice
Even if you are frustrated, do no attempt to defend this on your own without getting some free legal advice. You may think you have a valid reason for not having insurance, or you may be angry. However, this will not help you when you get to court. There are specific strategies and defences that you need to be aware of in order to try to minimize your No Insurance fine. Take the No Insurance penalty test below to get a better idea of the penalties you will be facing once you get to court.
