Inquiry: I always drive as an occasional driver and have never had insurance under my name. There have been two occasions in the past 3 years that I “failed to surrender insurance card” because it wasn’t in the vehicle I was driving.

I always just went and paid the tickets right away.

Now that i’m trying to get insurance under my name, the fact that i paid those tickets without fighting them is coming back to haunt me.

What should i do? I’m essentially blacklisted from getting insurance until these convictions drop off my history in 2 years from now.

Response:   Unfortunately, by paying your tickets  you entered a guilty plea to the charges which would only leave the appeal process in addressing them which can become expensive and requires a legitimate grounds of appeal.  This is an unfortunate circumstance that we often see clients in, where they have previously simply paid their tickets not anticipating that they would receive future charges or have insurance problems.   We offer a no-cost initial review of cases either via our toll-free number 1-866-801-8299 or at any of our office locations to give Defendants basic information about the nature of their charge and likely outcome at court.  It’s generally best to get some basic information on a charge before paying it as the cost of defending a charge is generally less than the fines and increased insurances rates that can result from a guilty plea.

Sincerely,
Greg Currie
Office Manager (London)