There is life after a DUI conviction.

With the high possibility of several costs and fees and the possibility of losing your license, this may be difficult to accept, but it is certainly true. As a matter of fact, when you get a DUI conviction, it isn’t necessarily a set fact that your car insurance rates will go up. Usually, they will, because most of the time you are required to file an SR 22 DUI auto insurance form, and you have to do this through your car insurance company anyway. However, in some states they do not mandate SR 22 auto insurance, and in such cases you can often get by without your car insurance company finding out. Why is this?

Sometimes it’s because then courts and the DMV don’t share information a lot, so your felonies and misdemeanors don’t always get put on your driving record, even if it is something as bad as a DUI charge. Another reason is because defensive driving classes can be taken to help you avoid having a traffic violation stick to your record. This is one of the easiest and most reliable ways to do it.

Sometimes, if your punishment is only intended to last for a short period of time, or your court proceedings go smoothly, you can get away without having your conviction made known, even if you aren’t aware of it. Even if they don’t tell, though, the car insurance company gets a three year period during which it can cancel your policy at any time if it finds out about the DUI, because you will have been misrepresenting your information.

However, even if your car insurance company does know about what you did, that doesn’t automatically mean that you will be paying high rates. If you have a history of being a safe driver, then a lot of times the company will give you a break on rates. Sometimes this means getting bumped down from the preferred class to the standard class, but with the right company and the right record, you can usually avoid getting into the highest risk class where the worst rates are. Occasionally, you can even keep your good driver discount if you keep your slate clean afterwards.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.