Online Auto Insurance Informs Consumers About 'No Pay, No Play' Laws

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA, March 02, 2011 (Press-News.org) Motorists in the United States have plenty of incentive to cover themselves through a standard auto insurance policy before pulling out onto the road: If they're caught by law enforcement officers, they're likely to be subject to fines--which can be steep in some states--for violating financial responsibility laws. And if they cause an accident while driving without proper coverage, they're likely to be fully responsible for compensating others involved in the accident for the damages they cause. In a new FAQ, the writers at OnlineAutoInsurance.com outline another argument for the necessity of purchasing a policy: "no pay, no play" law.

"No pay, no play" statutes are included in Alaska, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon and California car insurance law, and at least four other states currently have bills moving through their legislatures that would establish "no pay, no play" constraints there.

What these laws do is to restrain motorists who lack insurance from collecting for certain types of damages in the event that they are in an accident that is not their fault. The basic idea behind these statutes is that drivers who flout the compulsory insurance law should not be able to collect for damages to the extent that an insured driver would be able to.

The laws differ from state to state. In Louisiana, the "no pay, no play" law holds that uninsured drivers should not be able to collect for bodily injury or property damages up to the minimum limits required in the state.

In the majority of "no pay, no play" states, like California, uninsured drivers are able to collect only for economic damages, not for non-economic damages. This means they may be able to successfully sue for things like lost wages, property damage and medical bills, but they would not be able to do so for pain and suffering damages.

Source: http://bit.ly/en8ebo

To learn more about how these laws differ among states, readers can go to http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/california/ where visitors will find informative resource pages and a free-to-use quote-comparison generator. To access the full FAQ, click on the "Questions" link located at the top of any page on the site.