How do I get my license unrestricted after a California DUI?
Okay, the title of this question leaves out some details I will fill in here.
Here is the situation...
I received a DUI in Southern California (Santa Barbara) in late 2007. I was living at home (I am from the area) for a while after having lived in New York City for over 10 years. During my time in NYC I made the huge mistake (as I have since found out) of not switching over my license to NY State (apparently, my lawyer informed me that this not only would have allowed me to keep my license in hand but also that, because I could still prove NY residency at the time, I wouldn't have had to attend those idiotic DUI classes they punish you with).
Anyhow, I spent my year in California and made it through the classes and have now just paid off the fine. This is where my problem begins...
I moved back to NYC over a year ago. I am now wishing to make my license a NY State license. However, NY law does now allow you to transfer a license from another state that possesses any sort of restriction. Though I have paid off the fine and basically fulfilled all of the responsibilities that the Court ordered, I am still under the impression that the DMV still requires me to have an SR-22 (proof of $ responsibility), for which I will have to purchase insurance. The problem is, I never needed insurance before. I have never owned a car and before I left home I was covered under my parent's policy. I DID purchase insurance while in California in order to have the SR-22 on file with DMV, but upon moving I let my insurance expire as I could not afford the payments and had no need to drive (a big plus about NYC).
If the DMV rule is what I understand it to be, I'm under the impression that I must have an SR-22 on file (in other words, purchase insurance) even though I have fulfilled my court-ordered punishment (and yes, I do know that they are separate entities with separate rules). And since I need the SR-22 on file to get my license unrestricted in order to transfer my license to NY State, I'm forced to buy insurance that I don't need in order to do it.
If you're wondering why I don't need the insurance...again, I live in NYC, own no car (with no intention of ever having one) and do all of my driving in rentals when on the road for work or vacation so I'm covered by the rental agencies. I REALLY don't want to spend money I don't have on something I don't need just to do this.
Can anyone offer advice on working this problem???? Any and all help is appreciated.
Thanks,
J
May 29th, 2010 - 09:14
Legal advice requires legal professional you need to consult a lawyer to get your best advice.
May 29th, 2010 - 09:18
get the insurance just for as long as you need it to finalize your reinstatement process. once you get your license in NY, you can cancel the insurance, or change it over to NY if you want. you don’t have to buy a year’s worth of insurance–just a few months. i see a number of sites online that sell the sr-22 high risk insurance, so you can take care of it quickly. you just need an operator’s insurance since you have no car.
i’m just afraid that the advice of a lawyer would cost almost as much as an insurance policy, and the end result would be the same. the problem is, the ins. co has to electronically submit your ins info to the DMV, so there’s really no way to bypass that. the only alternative is to deposit $35k cash with the DMV, and goodness knows how long it would be B4 you get that back, given how broke our state is!