Lack of Insurance

[Luvgcz]

A friend of mine received a ticket on two different occasions about five years ago for driving a car with no insurance. She was driving someone else's car with their permission in each case. Shortly thereafter she moved to Alaska and forgot about the tickets. She returned to Ft Worth, Tx and found out her license had been suspended when a prospective employer did a background check. What is the best, and cheapest, way to deal with the unpaid tickets?

Thanks for the help

[ShysterJon]

I think your friend should:

1. Pay the outstanding amounts on the tickets online. It's easy. That'll lift the warrants, close the cases, and possibly make her eligible to get her driver's license reinstated.

2. Check to see if she owes administrative surcharges. She could have up to four surcharges for two no-insurance tickets (the offense is called 'failure to maintain financial responsibility' or 'FMFR') and two for not showing up in court (called 'failure to appear' or 'FTA'). She can check if she has surcharges here:

https://www.txsurchargeonline.com/default.aspx

Note that Texas has a new program that allows a person upon proof of indigency to pay only 10% of amounts due on surcharges, not to exceed a total of $250. Information is here:

https://www.txsurchargeonline.com/Indigence.aspx

3. Apply for reinstatement of her driver's license. Information how to do this is here:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/DriverL...ingLicense.htm

[Nia Love]

ShysterJon is correct. If she was driving in the state of Texas without insurance and got a ticket she will surely have to pay surcharges before she is able to get her license reinstated. In some cases she could even be required to get an SR-22 to ensure that she at least keeps liability coverage with herself being a named insured. Good luck!