Auto Insurance Mandatory in Wisconsin As of June 1st

Posted & filed under Car Insurance, Uninsured Motorists, Wisconsin Car Insurance.

Wisconsin drivers: you have until Monday evening to buy auto insurance if you don’t already have it, or risk getting an extra $200 the next time you’re pulled over for a traffic violation.

The new mandatory auto insurance law takes effect in Wisconsin on June 1st, which means that law enforcement officers will start requesting proof of insurance along with the usual driver’s license when stopping motorists. This law represents the final phase in a reformat of the state’s auto insurance law which was included in Governor Jim Doyle’s budget last year. Previous changes included increases in the minimum amount of required liability coverage.

Advocates for the new law say that car insurance changes are economically sensible. Drivers, they say, should have enough insurance to cover the damage they might do to other drivers or property.

Conversely, opponents of the mandatory insurance law believe such legislation is unnecessary, since roughly 85% of Wisconsin drivers (more than in many of the states where coverage has been compulsory for years) already have liability insurance. They also believe that the changes to state law were merely political favors from the largely Democratic state government to various trial lawyers, and that the increase in minimum coverage makes insurance too expensive for some motorists, and may cause low-income workers who can’t afford insurance coverage or the cost of fines to have their licenses suspended, leaving them unable to get jobs.

While local municipalities and police departments have the right to establish their own policies of enforcement and set their own fines, it is expected that the majority will simply follow the newly drafted State Patrol guidelines, authorities say. This means that police throughout the state will ask to see proof of insurance every time a driver is stopped for speeding, or any other suspected traffic violation.

State Patrol Major Don Lonsdorf, the director of transportation safety for the State Department of Transportation told the press, “We will be asking for insurance credentials on each and every stop, similar to like when we ask for a driver’s license. That’s really to be consistent across the board. What we don’t want is law enforcement, at least not State Patrol officers, picking and choosing who they ask and who they don’t ask.”

Lonsdorf also said that drivers who confess to being uninsured will be issued a ticket in the amount of $200.50, by state troopers.

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel