Legal Question in Traffic Law in Minnesota

Re: No Insurance, Need Help

Driving without insurance is a crime - a misdemeanor punishable by 90 days or $1,000 or both. If you are charged, you need a lawyer. It's serious. The judges don't consider it an accident. You decided to drive without insurance. It's deliberate. That's their thinking.

On the liability issue: in MN we have comparative negligence. One party or the other has to be over 50% negilgent or nobody is liable. Then you (or your insurance company) pay the percentage of your negligence - for example if you were 51% at fault, you pay 51% of the other guys damages and all of your own. If you are at least 51% at fault and the other guy's insurance company pays the other guy's damages, then you reimburse the other guy's insurance company up to the percentage of your fault. Obviously, there can be a lot of knashing of teeth over this, since no situation is totally clear.

If I were you, however, I would be offering to pay all the other guy's damages in the hope that the police might not require more of you. You want the other guy saying "I'm taken care of, everything's fine."

You need more than just a response to a question here. You need to go eyeball to eyeball with a live lawyer. My contact info is at http://www.mn-dwi.com.

This response is for general information purposes only and does not create an attorney-client relationship.