Screaming Bean - Everyone loves a Bean!

About Me

name: Beanie
age: 35
email: bbbeans@yahoo.com

AT THE MOMENT

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No. 634
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Screaming Bean

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

I'm pretty close to being a lawyer...I've passed the bar, waiting on my paperwork, not quite sworn in it yet. As a result of all this, I have some familiarity with our state's laws. That being said, I get blindsided now and again by things I should know, or at least understand.

In my state, if you have an accident that causes over $1000 in damage, there's a form you must fill out within 10 days of the accident, or your license can be suspended. I knew this mostly from prior experience, and partially due to the fact that the policeman wrote a reference to it on my accident report. (Thank you sir for having such nice handwriting, and no I'm not being sarcastic here.) My insurance company sent me the forms and a letter telling me to fill them out 10 days after my accident, so had I waited, or not known about the requirement, I would have been in default.

Fast forward to today, or realistically, Saturday. As it just so happens, our car insurance is due for renewal. I received the renewal the day before the accident (HA!), but did not receive the bill until Saturday. It's due on the 16th. Both of our cars appear on this bill. I don't plan on having to pay for a car I no longer have in my possession and had left a message with our agent asking for someone to contact me regarding this problem. Hearing no response from the agent, I called this morning. And this is when the rules got all weird. Seems, in our state, as long as there is valid registration on a car, there must be liability insurance. To make this all come out right I have to do one of the following: 1) buy a car instantly and transfer my plates and registration (nice idea, but see my previous posts to see why that won't happen), or in the alternative 2) immediately surrender the plates and get a receipt which in turn I have to fax to my agent so that they can see it and say, "This is good" and in turn cancel the liability on said car. And oh by the way, they already have the title to this car, so all I have left are the plates. But that's my problem. Now...the nearly-lawyer in me wanted to argue this point. How can I be expected to effectuate liability coverage on a car that isn't mine? Isn't this the insurance company's problem? According to them, no. It seems that the car is in fact nothing but a plate. And as long as I have this plate, the title can be on the moon. My problem. So now, the spouse has to go to DMV on lunch hour and pay $1 for the privilege of handing over the plates and receiving a receipt. Which I can then fax to them, and have them deign to cancel my insurance so I don't have to pay a bunch of money for a car I don't have. Are we straight now?

So my question is this: If I, Beanie nearly-lawyer, not only didn't know this rule, nor quite grasp why it is what it is, how could the standard schmuck possibly know and/or get it right without guidance from the heavens? Riddle me this Batman!

handed down by Beanie at 10:00 AM || |