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Saturday, November 16, 2019

Deadline nears for Maryland uninsured-motorist debt amnesty

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland — Time is running out for uninsured motorists in Maryland to take advantage of a program that forgives 80 percent of uninsured-driving debts that became delinquent before 2017.

Debtors have until Dec. 31 to register for the program and begin repaying the remaining 20 percent of their total fines. If an individual registers and pays at least one-sixth of their remaining 20 percent of debt by the end of the year, they have until June 2020 to finish paying.

There are approximately 308,000 unique debtors, who combined have close to 400,000 total unpaid debts, according to Maryland Auto Chief Executive Officer Mark McCurdy.

The average debt is in the range of $2,400 to $2,500, McCurdy told Capital News Service. The fines are issued to drivers found operating a vehicle without insurance or allowing the coverage to lapse on a registered vehicle, and those debts prevent people from renewing their registration.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is there an 'amnesty'?

They broke the law and put others at risk, and I'd guess cost others some money, including me, when we had to buy uninsured motorist coverage.

Make them pay, or or start confiscating things, beginning with their vehicle.

The reason so many drive without insurance? They get away with it.

Make it hurt.

Jersey boy said...

Is our government really this stupid!!!
If you really want to ensure that people have auto insurance, arrest them for 24 hours (to get their attention) than work off their debt to the state by cleaning parks, road sides etc for minimum wage. Each time they are caught multiply jail time and fines. Eventually they will either get insurance or quit driving.

Anonymous said...

A lady that works in my insurance office tried to give me a line of B.S. that nobody in Maryland drives without insurance because it's the law and I was like "ummm yea your wrong about that because it happens all the time". She was like "no it's not its against the law".Then when I asked why my car insurance went up even though I've had no accidents, fines or violations of any kind,she responded in a way that implied its because other people had nicer cars than me. I told her that really makes no sense because I'm not paying for their car only mine. She was then trying to tell me that wasn't what she was saying.I wasn't about to get in an argument with her because she was stupid and I'd be wasting my time.

Anonymous said...

@10:10 you obviously don't know what you're talking about! If they drive uninsured in Maryland you are doing so with out of state plates/registration. As soon as your insurance coverage lapses with Maryland plates/registration you're sent a letter to rectify the situation or turn in your plates, PERIOD!! The real travesty is all of the law abiding citizens are forced to pay into Maryland's uninsured motorist fund. It's awfully generous of the state of Maryland to grant amnesty with other people's money