A couple of years ago, soon after I got my license, I got pulled over twice within two months for driving without insurance and was ticketed both times. I ended up missing both court dates, and going in a few months later to post bond and set up a payment plan. Of course, in Texas you can’t do this, because of the point system where you’ll automatically have points added if you pay on a plan for things like lack of insurance. So, instead, I rescheduled my court date. I was told by the girl behind the glass window that I was on what was called ‘probation’, and was required to have car insurance without any lapses through the date of my court appearance, and be able to prove it.
I guess I wasn’t listening too hard. What I was supposed to do was get an SR 1 insurance form filed by my auto insurance company so that the department of motor vehicles would have continuous proof of my car insurance coverage. I didn’t do that, because I had no idea that I was supposed to. I did keep my auto insurance coverage going for the whole time, but when I got to court and didn’t have an SR 1 to show for the time, the judge was not impressed.
The reason why I am mentioning this under an SR 22 topic is because I think it is important for those doing Texas SR 22 filing to realize that there is a difference between having an SR 22 form and having three years of insurance cards. One the judge will accept as proper proof, and the other just doesn’t work.
It’s a funny system, considering that both methods prove the same point–that you had car insurance coverage during the time of punishment after your Texas DUI conviction. However, what the SR 22 accomplishes that the regular insurance card doesn’t is that it keeps the department of motor vehicles constantly informed of your insurance status. On the other hand, just the insurance card can only provide proof of this after your period is over. That’s the emphasis that I want to put behind proper Texas SR 22 filing–it has to be done because it is the only approved method. You can’t just prove financial responsibility any which way.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
