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Drivers with lapsed insurance fines can now check if they still owe fines after recent law change
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BATON ROUGE — A law that went into effect in June will wipe out a large number of fines that people owe to the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles due to lapsed insurance, with a system being put in place for people to check whether or not their fines have been cleared, OMV officials said Friday.
The only catch? Those with fines will not be notified of the change in their fines. The OMV said that fines must be checked manually through the new system. To check on the fines, drivers facing insurance fees can visit this website.
The purpose of the fines is to encourage people to get and retain car insurance. The fines have sent many people into serious debt and never-ending payment plans. Thousands of people owe anywhere from $125 to $30,000, WBRZ reported in June when the law was still pending in the legislature.
Commissioner Dan Casey said the law will reel things in for delinquent drivers who have fines that have ballooned out of their reach.
"It allows us to reset the fines back to the original fine they were charged with," he said.
Casey said that the OMV had about $477 million in unpaid debt as of June, with $220 million dating back to 2016. This has all been wiped out with the new law.
"The rest of the fines are going to get reset and we'll renegotiate with the consumer to get them back licensed and legal on the street," Casey said.
The law also put a cap on how much drivers could owe. Casey provided an example of one driver who owes about $15,780. When the fines are reset to the original amount, it will drop what that person owes to $1,630.
A law passed in 2015 gave the OMV authority to collect the fines. Soon after, the agency mailed out more than a million letters to collect that debt. In 2016, delinquent drivers were allowed to apply for a payment plan to whittle down those fines monthly. If the fines go unpaid, they're sent to the Office of Debt Recovery, where they rack up more fees.
"It affects about a half million folks that have stops on their licenses," Casey said in June.
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