Auto Insurance Error - and now they are refusing to reimburse

[MidSmith]

What is the name of your state? North Carolina

I cancelled insurance on one of my vehicles, turned in the plate, and its sitting in my garage (waiting on my daughter to get her license). My insurance company cancelled the insurance on the correct car, but sent in the wrong vehicle information to the DMV. So, I was pulled over, had my plates taken, and was given a $240 ticket.

The insurance company admitted their error immediately. The DMV required that I had to pay tax and tag on my vehicle AGAIN, and the insurance company wanted a few days to investigate that (which in the end I had to pay), and they offered to reimburse me for a rental car. The insurance company has reimbursed me for the rental car, but refuses to reimburse for tax and tag and even though they said they would, they have not provided a letter for me to take to court yet. The insurance company claims that the DMV owes me the tax and tag reimbursement because they shouldn't have charged me for that. The DMV has stood firm.. the only way I got a tag on my vehicle was to pay tax and tag.

I want to take them to small claims court and recoup the cost of the tax, tag, and any court fees after next weeks court date. In addition, I want three days of lost wages for the day after when I sat at home with no tag on my car, for the day in court regarding the ticket, and the day in small claims court. My thought process is this... it's their admitted error. Even if they tried to skirt around it - I have the reimbursement for the rental car. That is pretty solid admission. If they feel strongly that the DMV charged me incorrectly then they can go after the DMV for their reimbursement. The DMV has stood firm, and I will be contacting them for a letter as well.

Fair? Solid case? Thoughts?

 

[adjusterjack]

Why were you pulled over?

Whether you have a case or not depends on why you were pulled over. If you committed a traffic infraction, you'll get nothing. If the officer pulled you over after just randomly running your plates, maybe. But not for lost earnings. That's never going to happen because you had a variety of ways to get to work rather than sit home because of no plates.

 

[MidSmith]

I believe they were running plates because I was pulled over immediately after pulling out of a parking lot. The reason for being pulled over was that the car was coming up that it did not have insurance - which was the insurance company's error. There was no moving violation on my part, and no insurance lapse. All an insurance company paperwork error.

Great feedback. What about the two days in court lost wages?

 

[adjusterjack]

What about the two days in court lost wages?

No way to predict. But thinking defensively you wouldn't spend 8 hours in court each day, so if you get anything it might be for a few hours for each of the days.

 

[Taxing Matters]

You don't get compensated in a lawsuit for the time you spend in court. I disagree with Jack that you for surewouldn't get the days off work you had while the car could not be driven without plates. You can ask for that and make the case you are entitled to it. There is not quite the same duty to mitigate damages in a negligence case as there is in a contract case, and I'd lay this out as a negligence and, depending on what the contract says, might also include a breach of contract claim.

 

[adjusterjack]

You don't get compensated in a lawsuit for the time you spend in court

Agree. But I think the OP was referring to the days in court to address the citations caused by the insurance company's error. If the days off due to lack of plates might be compensable, then lost wages for those days in court to address the citations might also be.

 

[HighwayMan]

I'm guessing the stop was simply the result of an LPR hit. Yes, that's just a guess.

 

[FlyingRon]

The local guys here in my county do run plates regularly when they don't have anything better to do. Revoked plates (which is what happens when your insurance lapses) don't require any more than that.

 

[Taxing Matters]

The local guys here in my county do run plates regularly when they don't have anything better to do.

Some police departments around the country are equipping their cars with scanners that simply continuously reads license plates of the cars around the police and then instantly checks them, spitting out very quickly any plates that are no good, cars whose owners are wanted, or have suspended driver's licenses, etc. No more need for a cop to personally enter the data to run plates. That's the direction I think that least all large and mid-size departments will go eventually. Indeed, I would not be surprised if bar codes get added to plates to help facilitate that kind of system.

 

[FlyingRon]

Actually, the license plate scanners are sophisticated enough that bar codes are not necessary.

While it is illegal to drive with revoked plates, unless there's some aggravating circumstance, the cops around here usually just take the plates without writing up the driver. There's far too many of these false reports of non-compliance even when there is insurance in force.

 

[HighwayMan]

That's the direction I think that least all large and mid-size departments will go eventually.

The technology is an added expense that basically prevents its installation on every vehicle in a fleet. I don't see that changing in the foreseeable future.

I have used LPRs extensively and while they are very effective they are certainly fallible. No matter how hard I try to properly align the cameras many plates are missed altogether and while the OCR capabilities are excellent I do see misreads all the time.

Another factor is that currently there is no way for the LPR system to distinguish between plates from different states. In essence it adds to the problem of "false" hits that require manual intervention.

And as a matter of information the LPR does not do an actual inquiry on each plate read. When the software starts up it downloads a "hotlist" from the server which is generally updated once a day (I'm guessing that some type of hash table is used to store the plate data). The lookups are faster than a remote lookup could ever be.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Actually, the license plate scanners are sophisticated enough that bar codes are not necessary.

However, a good bar code can contain a lot more information than is conveyed by just a plate number, and some law enforcement people I've spoken to have expressed a desire for that.

 

[Taxing Matters]

The technology is an added expense that basically prevents its installation on every vehicle in a fleet. I don't see that changing in the foreseeable future.

With the pace of change in technology and how cheap it becomes as time goes on you might be suprised how soon it will become affordable to equip most or all patrol cars with scanning technology. It won't be tomorrow, but I see that day coming in the not too distant future.

 

[HighwayMan]

When a simple mounting bracket for an LPR camera costs $300 I get the feeling that it will be a very long time before any of these vendors drop their prices significantly. But then again I tend to be the cynical type.