Tuesday, January 16, 2007
New Auto Insurance Law in California Requires Uninsured Motorists ...
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- On October 1, 2006 the California Department of Motor Vehicles ("DMV") began enforcing the new insurance law, Senate Bill 1500 ("SB 1500"), that requires the DMV to suspend a vehicle's registration if the vehicle does not have a valid insurance policy or bond. This change closes a loophole that allowed some residents to provide invalid proof of insurance to the DMV when registering their vehicles and allowed some to cancel their insurance policy shortly after obtaining their registration.
Related to this legislation, starting July 1st of this year Assembly Bill 2709 ("AB 2709") has given law enforcement officers in the State the ability to electronically verify if a vehicle has auto insurance using the same database as the DMV.
These changes may have a particular impact on those Hispanic communities that have a high percentage of uninsured motorists.
