Eligibility question, please help (sorry, really long post)

[WNallG30]

Hey all. I just found out something funny. I just found out my drivers license is suspended. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it's an insurance problem. I was hoping someone might know something or be able to shed some light on whether or not this will affect my CHL eligibility. Here's the whole story, I don't know if I could properly explain the situation with out the long version, I apologize in advance for the long back story.

I got a ticket for no insurance in 2002, but I had insurance, just not the current card. I wasn't paying attention and hadn't replaced the old one with the new one. I was not in my home county when it happened, so I contacted my insurance company when I got home and they said they'd send in proof of insurance. Expecting it to be taken care of, I never thought anything else about it as the officer told me it would be dismissed if I sent in proof of insurance.

Fast forward to 2005, I got a letter in the mail from the county saying I never took care of the insurance thing and now had a failure to appear charge as well. I contacted the court house and was told the failure to appear fine would stick, but if I could send proof of insurance at the time of the ticket, it would be dismissed. I got her name and told her specifically that I would have my insurance agent personally contact only her and get this taken care of. Great, okay, now BACK to the insurance company. I was not a happy camper. I told them of the issue, and that they were supposed to have taken care of it the first time. I was told it would be taken care of for sure this time. I gave the person who usually handles our claims and changes and what not the information and the woman's name at the court house. I also told them that THEY could take care of the failure to appear fine as they screwed up in the first place, and to make sure they sent proof I had insurance in 2002, not just currently. Thinking ONCE AGAIN that this was handled, I didn't think about it any more.

Fast forward AGAIN to last week and then today. Last week, I got a letter from the county I got the ticket in and apparently it's still not taken care of. This was a week from Hell at work, and I haven't had time to call the court house or my insurance company, which I'll probably be leaving. I got pulled over today, and the deputy told me my license was suspended. I can't take care of it today because every office is closed for Good Friday. But, I just recently renewed it online maybe a month ago, so I'm completely shocked and all kinds of irritated and upset, it wasn't suspended then! Luckily the deputy was feeling generous and sent me on my way telling me to call DPS first thing Monday.

Okay, sorry again for the long back story, now onto my question. I sent my CHL application in on March 27th and I'm wondering if all this is going to cause me a denial. I'm going to call DPS Monday morning and find out for sure whether or not it's the insurance thing against my drivers license. And I'm going to call the county courthouse I got the ticket from on Monday and pay the fine and just get it taken care of so it will finally be done with. I assume that will take the suspension off of my license, I can't possibly think of any other tickets I've gotten or any other reason it would be suspended. Is any of this a Class A or B misdemeanor? I'm ditching my insurance company anyway after all this, but I'll be extremely angry if this costs me my CHL.

Any helpful suggestions or advice? I don't know if it will affect my CHL or not but I'm very concerned about it. Any help would be great. Thanks all.

[txinvestigator]

Hey all. I just found out something funny. I just found out my drivers license is suspended. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it's an insurance problem. I was hoping someone might know something or be able to shed some light on whether or not this will affect my CHL eligibility. Here's the whole story, I don't know if I could properly explain the situation with out the long version, I apologize in advance for the long back story.

I got a ticket for no insurance in 2002, but I had insurance, just not the current card. I wasn't paying attention and hadn't replaced the old one with the new one. I was not in my home county when it happened, so I contacted my insurance company when I got home and they said they'd send in proof of insurance. Expecting it to be taken care of, I never thought anything else about it as the officer told me it would be dismissed if I sent in proof of insurance.

Fast forward to 2005, I got a letter in the mail from the county saying I never took care of the insurance thing and now had a failure to appear charge as well. I contacted the court house and was told the failure to appear fine would stick, but if I could send proof of insurance at the time of the ticket, it would be dismissed. I got her name and told her specifically that I would have my insurance agent personally contact only her and get this taken care of. Great, okay, now BACK to the insurance company. I was not a happy camper. I told them of the issue, and that they were supposed to have taken care of it the first time. I was told it would be taken care of for sure this time. I gave the person who usually handles our claims and changes and what not the information and the woman's name at the court house. I also told them that THEY could take care of the failure to appear fine as they screwed up in the first place, and to make sure they sent proof I had insurance in 2002, not just currently. Thinking ONCE AGAIN that this was handled, I didn't think about it any more.

Fast forward AGAIN to last week and then today. Last week, I got a letter from the county I got the ticket in and apparently it's still not taken care of. This was a week from Hell at work, and I haven't had time to call the court house or my insurance company, which I'll probably be leaving. I got pulled over today, and the deputy told me my license was suspended. I can't take care of it today because every office is closed for Good Friday. But, I just recently renewed it online maybe a month ago, so I'm completely shocked and all kinds of irritated and upset, it wasn't suspended then! Luckily the deputy was feeling generous and sent me on my way telling me to call DPS first thing Monday.

Okay, sorry again for the long back story, now onto my question. I sent my CHL application in on March 27th and I'm wondering if all this is going to cause me a denial. I'm going to call DPS Monday morning and find out for sure whether or not it's the insurance thing against my drivers license. And I'm going to call the county courthouse I got the ticket from on Monday and pay the fine and just get it taken care of so it will finally be done with. I assume that will take the suspension off of my license, I can't possibly think of any other tickets I've gotten or any other reason it would be suspended. Is any of this a Class A or B misdemeanor? I'm ditching my insurance company anyway after all this, but I'll be extremely angry if this costs me my CHL.

Any helpful suggestions or advice? I don't know if it will affect my CHL or not but I'm very concerned about it. Any help would be great. Thanks all.

None of the "how it happened to you" matters. If you have been charged wth a class B Misdemeanor or higher and have no disposition yet, then you will not be eligible.

Since you were not involved in a wreck without insurance, it does not appear from the Texas Transpostation Code, Chapter 601, that you could be charged with a Class B or higher. This should not affect you CHL.

In another note, DPS sends notification before suspensions of Driver Licenses. Have you moved and not notified DPS of your new address?

Also, it is the responsibility of the operator of the vehicle to comply with insurance laws, and it was YOUR responsibility to provide the court with proof of insurance at the time of the citation. The courts would not just accept proof from your insurance company. IOW, your insurance company would need to reference the ticket number, your name, DOB and DL number, etc.

You may be in a situation now where you need an attorney to be sure this gets fixed properly.

[Commander]

I want to echo TxInvestigator's comments.

DPS does sent written notice to the address on file with the Department - the address on your DL. If you have moved this notice is NOT forwarded to your new address. You are required by state law to report a change of your address within 30 days of a move. The notice is returned to Austin and held waiting for a new address.

You probably have an SR (Safety Responsibility) suspension for no insurance and simply paying the fine alone will not clear your license. Call DPS in Austin on Monday ask for the SR section. They will advise you why your license is suspended and what steps you need to take to clear it up. If you do have an SR suspension, and you have talked to Austin, you can bring your SR-22 form to the DPS Regional Office in Garland (if you are in the Dallas area) where they have a field SR section that can handle your paper work. Otherwise, Austin will advise you of the closest SR office.

Also as Tx said, you were the one in violation not your insurance company; therefore YOU were the one responsible for contacting the court and providing them with whatever information they required to clear up this case.

[KRM45]

I'd have to agree that you should have addressed this yourself when you had the chance.

To answer your question though the failure to appear may impact your CHL application, but should not be a permanent bar to aquiring it.

[WNallG30]

Actually, since my insurance agent specifically told me they could take care of it and send it in for me, and I gave them a copy of the ticket so they had all of my information, I think it was safe to assume at the initial time of the ticket that it was taken care of. Obviously, if I had known at the time that it would get all jacked up, I would have just mailed in one of the 500 extra insurance cards they send every time it is renewed. But I didn't ask the question to have everyone kick me with their replies. Thanks for the little bit of useful information though.

[dws1117]

Actually, since my insurance agent specifically told me they could take care of it and send it in for me, and I gave them a copy of the ticket so they had all of my information, I think it was safe to assume at the initial time of the ticket that it was taken care of. Obviously, if I had known at the time that it would get all jacked up, I would have just mailed in one of the 500 extra insurance cards they send every time it is renewed. But I didn't ask the question to have everyone kick me with their replies. Thanks for the little bit of useful information though.

I didn't see any attempt to (paraphrasing) kick you below the waist. A question was asked and the best answers were given with reguards to what was known. from my perception the responses were quite encouraging. The individuals that responded are very knowlegable and respected here.

As was said earlier, contacting a laywer may be your best option. Don't get discouraged. All is not lost. There have been a few that have been in similar predicaments and have come through sucessfully.

Good luck. I hope it works out in your favor. Please keep us posted.

[jbirds1210]

WN,
I hope that you get everything worked out! As you know, this is a privilege worth fighting for! Getting your license a bit later beats the heck out of not getting it at all. Best of luck.
Jason

[JohnKSa]

Not trying to kick you, but it's important to realize that a summons is not something you can or should have someone else handle.

A ticket is a summons to appear in court that comes with information on how you can respond so as to NOT have to appear. Therefore unless and until you have received direct communication from the court that they are happy with YOUR response, you should plan to appear.

I'd be willing to bet that without a judgement against them, the insurance company will not pay a dime to get you out of your predicament.

Sounds like you've learned a very important lesson fairly cheaply. This could have gone a LOT worse.

Good luck!

John

[DKSuddeth]

I might also suggest that you look for a different insurance company. who knows what could happen to you if something more serious evolves from the insurance company not doing something for you as they said they would.

[txinvestigator]

But I didn't ask the question to have everyone kick me with their replies. Thanks for the little bit of useful information though.

You got the bonus plan. ;)

[Commander]

I'm sorry that there was a misunderstanding of my response. My intent was to re-enforce that whoever the violator may be is responsible for resolving the ticket with the court. Over the years, I've talked to many people who have gotten warrants issued because they relied on a lawyer, or employer, or someone else to take care of a ticket. So it ended up costing them more money than it would have to start out with.

[Charles L. Cotton]

WnallG30:
I don't have any idea what Class of offense an FTA is, but I also would suggest that you get an attorney to try to make sure you don't have a Class A or B misdemeanor on your record. The "conviction" will be dated when the matter is resolved (i.e. fine paid), not when you "failed to appear," so the 5 year exclusionary period will begin when the fine is paid. Again, I'm not sure an FTA is a Class A or B, so this may not be an issue. Some of our LEO's may be able to answer this one.

My practice is in Houston and surrounding counties, so I couldn't be of much help. I suggest you get an attorney in the county of the ticket; better yet, get someone in the town where the court operates. Tell your attorney the whole story and tell him you're not trying to get out of paying the fine, you just don't want it on your record. He may be able to just talk to the judge and get it dismissed with court costs, or perhaps a fine and 90 days deferred adjudication with nothing on your record after that. It would be very helpful if your insurance agent would at least write a letter explaining they had told you they would send proof of insurance, but that they failed to do so. As others have said, don't make it look like you're trying to shift responsibility to the insurance agent, just be clear that you are simply explaining why you didn't follow up. You now realize it was a mistake to trust the agent and you are trying to clear it up. That approach will likely get you the best result.

This won't be a deal-breaker, but it could cause a delay.

Regards,
Chas.

[Commander]

Usually, in my experience, an FTA on a traffic violation is a Class C.

Tomorrow is Monday, you will be able to make some calls and figure out what happened and what you need to do. Until you get this cleared up, you should avoid driving as you may not encounter another LEO that will give you a break like the first one did. If your license is suspended as the deputy said, you could be arrested and taken to jail for DWLS (Driving While License Suspended). That would only complicate matters and cost you a lot more money.

I'd be interested in how this works out. This shouldn't seriously affect your CHL process. Good Luck.


While we're on the subject of suspended licenses, there is a new program in effect called the Driver Responsiblity Program that attaches points and surcharges for various violations. Here is the link for more information.

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administra ... rp/drp.htm

[WNallG30]

Thanks for the help guys. I know that you were trying to help, even though a few of the responses made me feel like the guy who goes around kicking puppies and eating kittens for breakfast! ;) I agree, it was a mistake to trust my insurance agent, and I'm taking care of that Monday morning as well as making the other calls. I just though at the time, "Wow, they're really going above and beyond, this is great." If nothing else, it's only a couple of hours away, I may just go in person. I'll get a letter from my insurance agent stating that I really did have insurance in 2002 ad actually take it to the court. I'll get it all straight, and I'll let you all know how it goes.

[cxm]

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