House Bill 621, signed by Ronnie Musgrove, establishes a mandatory car liability insurance system in Mississippi. Since January 1, 2001, Mississippi law has required all drivers to maintain liability insurance and to carry a card proving liability insurance in their vehicles at all times.
Is it illegal to not have car insurance in Mississippi?
It is a misdemeanor to violate the Mississippi Code for Motor Vehicle Safety and Responsibility. A single infraction of the auto insurance law can result in a $500 fine and a one-year suspension of your driving privileges, or until you can establish that you have obtained the required automobile insurance. The cost of regaining one’s license will also be incurred.
What car insurance is required in Mississippi?
All drivers in Mississippi are required to maintain and carry liability insurance in order to ensure that accident victims receive the reimbursement they deserve to recover from their injuries. Minimum levels of insurance coverage are required. Drivers must carry $25,000 in liability coverage for single-person bodily injury or death, $50,000 in total bodily injury or death, and $25,000 in property damage.
What is the only state that does not require auto insurance?
According to the Insurance Information Institute and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, New Hampshire is the only state that does not require residents to have insurance or even prove they can cover their liabilities in an accident. However, if you cause an accident, the state will need proof of insurance or the ability to pay for up to $50,000 in medical expenses and $25,000 in property damage repair. If you don’t, your license and registration will be suspended. If necessary, drivers can meet the requirement with a surety bond, money or securities deposited with the state treasury, or other evidence demonstrating their ability to comply with state rules.
What is the minimum amount of auto insurance required by law in Mississippi?
Mississippi boasts thousands of miles of highways stretching from Biloxi to Hattiesburg, Tupelo to Natchez. They’ll take you from the Cumberland Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico, via historic Civil War combat sites, the Delta Blues, and downtown Jackson. Over 1.9 million licensed drivers use them annually, putting them an average of 13,000 kilometers. Thousands of traffic accidents occur each year as a result of those drivers’ actions, many of which result in significant injury or death. Carrying proper automobile insurance is both a legal necessity and good sense protection wherever you reside and drive in Mississippi. This is your guide to Mississippi’s basic auto insurance regulations and requirements.
Mississippi law mandates that you have a certain amount of auto insurance. Failure to do so can result in serious consequences such as monetary fines and prison term. Actual damages (expenses related with property damage and medical expenditures), economic damages (missed wages and earning ability), and emotional and physical pain and suffering may all be recoverable under Mississippi’s tort system.
Personal liability, uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance, and collision and comprehensive coverage are not required in Mississippi. Supplementing the basic standards, on the other hand, can help you protect yourself against financial loss if you own property or other important assets.
Does insurance follow the car or the driver in Mississippi?
In Mississippi, car insurance frequently follows the vehicle. Bodily injury liability, personal injury liability, collision, and comprehensive are the four forms of automobile insurance that follow the car in Mississippi. In Mississippi, you must carry bodily injury and property damage liability insurance.
Bodily injury liability insurance pays for injuries to the other driver and their passengers if you let someone borrow your car and they cause an accident in Mississippi. Damage to the other driver’s vehicle is covered by property damage liability insurance. If the person who borrowed your automobile suffers damage that exceeds your coverage limitations, their liability policy may be used as backup protection. However, their coverage begins only when yours has been exhausted.
If someone causes an accident while driving your car, you won’t need to use your PIP or MedPay coverage because PIP and MedPay follow the driver. However, if your automobile is damaged, you’ll have to pay for it using your collision and comprehensive insurance. These extra coverage categories cover the cost of repairing your car regardless of who was driving, but it is a claim on your insurance.
Lending your automobile to someone else is always a risk, because you could end up submitting a claim on your own insurance in Mississippi. In most circumstances, when someone borrows your automobile, they also borrow your insurance coverage.
Does Mississippi have no pay no play?
Mississippi is not a blameless state. Mississippi is a fault (or culpable) state “state of tort”) This means that if a driver causes an accident, their insurance will cover the costs of the other driver’s medical claims. The available evidence is used by police and insurance companies to determine who is to blame for the accident. The at-fault driver’s insurance then pays to reimburse the damages caused by the other driver. They may have insurance for their own damages as well, depending on their coverage.
“Fault” can be shared among drivers; for example, one motorist may be 20% accountable for an accident while the other is guilty for 80%. Mississippi’s comparative negligence statutes are strict. That implies that if you’re at fault in a car accident, you can sue for damages proportional to your share of the blame. If you’re 99 percent at blame, for example, you might be able to get 1% from the other motorist.
Why You Should Care That Mississippi is a Tort/Fault State
Medical coverage is only paid out in tort states like Mississippi once culpability has been determined. That implies more legal hoops to jump through and a longer wait for fault to be determined and a driver to be compensated. This type of system has numerous consequences for drivers, some of which differ by state due to differences in local vehicle insurance legislation.
Here’s what tort insurance means for Mississippi drivers:
- After a collision, drivers can sue the at-fault party for nearly any form of loss. This includes lost pay, emotional discomfort, and hospital expenditures that exceed the coverage provided by the at-fault driver.
- After a car accident, Mississippi has a three-year statute of limitations. That implies you have three years to sue the at-fault driver, or vice versa, from the date of the car accident.
Is Mississippi a no fault state?
Mississippi is a “Fault” State for Car Accidents. In Mississippi, a person who suffers any kind of injury or damage as a result of an auto accident can usually proceed in one of three ways: by filing a personal injury lawsuit in civil court against the at-fault driver; by filing a personal injury lawsuit in criminal court against the at-fault driver; or by filing a personal injury lawsuit in criminal court against the at-fault driver.
How much is car insurance a month in Mississippi?
According to NerdWallet’s analysis, the average cost of full coverage vehicle insurance in Mississippi is $1,900 per year, or roughly $158 per month. Mississippi’s minimum coverage is $575 per year on average, however we found that you may probably get a cheaper policy. State Farm, for example, has the most affordable rates in Mississippi, with an average of $333 a year for minimum coverage car insurance for a 35-year-old motorist with a clean driving record.
How long do you have to get insurance after buying a used car in Mississippi?
In most circumstances, the Mississippi new-car insurance grace period is 2 to 30 days. The new-car grace period refers to the amount of time that insured drivers are permitted to drive a newly purchased vehicle before having to add it to an existing auto insurance policy. You’ll need evidence of liability coverage before you can legally drive or register your automobile in Mississippi if you don’t have one.
Because there are no state rules dictating how much time insurance companies must offer you to move your existing policy to a new automobile when you buy a new car in Mississippi, the period you have to tell your insurer can vary. The grace period is determined by each insurance carrier. That’s why it’s crucial to figure out how much time you have to call your insurance carrier and how much coverage your new automobile will have based on the conditions of your policy.
When You Need Insurance to Buy a New Car in Mississippi
If you’re financing a car, your lender will almost certainly need evidence of insurance before you drive it off the lot. Before you complete the purchase, you can acquire the information you need for a policy from the dealership, such as the car’s VIN. If you have an active policy, all you’ll need is your current proof of insurance.
You won’t be asked to submit proof of insurance if you’re paying cash or buying a car altogether from a private seller. To drive legally in Mississippi, you must meet minimal financial responsibility criteria in any case: $25,000 in bodily injury liability coverage, with a maximum of $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 in property damage liability coverage.
If you lease or finance a car, collision and comprehensive coverage will almost certainly be required to safeguard the lender’s investment. In Mississippi, collision policies cost an average of $492 per year, while comprehensive policies cost an average of $221 per year. A full coverage policy, which includes liability, collision, and comprehensive coverage, will cost roughly $1,551.
Because you must provide proof of insurance before you can take possession of a newly financed car, some insurers extend comprehensive and collision coverage to existing customers in good faith, even if their current policy does not include those types of coverage. If this is the case, your grace period will be reduced to 2 to 4 days rather than 7 to 30 days.
How New Car Insurance Grace Period Works in Mississippi When You’re…
- Buying a new car to replace your old one. If you replace an insured car on your policy, most insurance providers give you a 7 to 30 day grace period. The same type and level of coverage will apply to the new car as it does to the one you’re replacing. Mississippi requires that your new automobile be covered by the highest level of coverage on your policy if you have several cars on your policy.
- NOT buying a new car to replace your old one. If you aren’t replacing your automobile when you buy a new one, be sure you have at least the bare minimum liability coverage for the vehicle you are purchasing in Mississippi. When you add a new vehicle to your policyfor example, if you go from two to three carsnot all insurance companies offer coverage. If they do, it will only be for a few days, usually 2 to 4.
If you’re already covered, you probably have a grace period, but it’s best not to rely on it. When it comes to confirming coverage for a new car, contact your insurance carrier as soon as possible to let them know about any changes to your policy.
Do you need car insurance in all states?
No, not all states require auto insurance, but they all require financial responsibility in order to drive on the road.
Every state requires you to establish financial responsibility through insurance, a bond, or other recognized ways that demonstrate your ability to pay if you cause damages to another person or property in a vehicle accident.
Because each state’s laws are renewed every year, several states that previously had no insurance requirements now do. New Hampshire generally has the fewest restrictions, but it still requires you to produce proof of financial responsibility as soon as possible after an automobile accident.
All 50 states have varying minimum insurance requirements if you want to acquire insurance, as most drivers do.
Almost every state requires you to have bodily injury liability insurance to cover the treatment of anyone you damage; no-fault states may need you to have personal injury protection to cover your own injuries. Property damage liability insurance is frequently required to repair the vehicles of anyone you hit.
State rules and minimum insurance requirements differ significantly, and this has a significant impact on the price you pay. In certain states, drivers are required to present proof of liability insurance when registering a car, whereas in others, proof of insurance is only required when requested in other words, when a driver is involved in an accident or receives a ticket.
Take your actual auto insurance card (or other proof of financial responsibility) with you when traveling out of state, and review your policy for any out-of-state policy limitations (such as only the named insured being covered) before hitting the road.
Unless your current liability limits do not reach the other state’s minimal limitations, most plans will provide you with the same liability limits while you’re out of state. If such is the case, if you are in an accident, your policy will usually immediately raise the limits to the state’s levels.
Virginia and South Carolina are the only states that enable drivers to register an automobile without insurance for a fee, albeit the money does not relieve them from financial responsibility obligations. (See “Drive uninsured for $500 legally.”)