I’m a fan of Judge Judy…yes I know, I need to get a life.
Anyway, there are quite a number of cases where a person has been driving a car without insurance but the car has “tags”
I’m assuming that these tags are similar to UK tax discs.
Now over here you can’t tax your car unless you provide proof that you have at the very least 3rd party insurance.
So how does it work in the USA?
All states have there own laws. They all collect license fees for the car that last one year. Not all states have a law requiring insurance on the car. Requirements to get your driver’s license also vary from state to state.
The “tags” are similar to what you would call number plates, or as we say here, license plates. They must be renewed every year. In most, if not all, states, you are required to have insurance in order to license your car. How well this is enforced depends on the state.
Some states will simply take your word that you have insurance, or not even ask.
Some states require you to show proof of current insurance when you apply for a license the first time, but do no follow-up checks on renewal.
Some states require the insurance company to notify the state when a policy is lapsed or canceled, and the state will then demand proof of new insurance or revoke the tags.
Car insurance basics - Insure.com
And see, Is it legal to drive without insurance? | III
http://www.bbb.org/ALERTS/article.asp?ID=431
So I gather that renewal of licence plates mean that the plate you have remains the same.
I find it really strange that some states will simply take your word for it that you have insurance, don’t they know people have a tendency to tell porkies?
In that case, the tags are more analagous to our tax disc (renewed once a year, requiring proof of insurance) than our number plates (assigned to the car when it is first registered with the DVLA, and stay with the vehicle throughout its life even if it is declared off the road).
In the last state I lived in, New York, if your insurance lapsed you would get a notice from the department of motor vehicles to either provide proof of coverage from some other source or to turn in your plates within a certain time. If you failed to do this they’d send a police officer to your door to collect them.
Now I live in Ohio. When I register the car I have to fill out a form swearing that I am covered by liability insurance to the state limits. They will occasionally ask people to provide proof of coverage at a later date. My wife was sent a letter asking her to send proof of coverage at some point during the year, but we own three cars and in 5 years only one of us has been asked for proof of coverage, so I would say enforcement is either not random, or is not strict.
In a traffic stop I am required to provide proof of insurance in both states.
Well you may be the USA but it seems to me that each state is semi-autonomous.
What a strange state of affairs 
My state just assumes that if you’re driving you have insurance. The only time anyone will find out if you don’t have insurance is if you get pulled over or are in an accident. If you don’t have insurance, you’re in BIG heapum trouble. I think someone told me the ticket is almost $1000.
In my state (WA) there’s no requirement to have insurance at tag renewal time. You are welcome to tag a car without insurance–you just shouldn’t drive it.
I live in Ohio. Recently, the state sent me a letter asking for documentation that I had current insurance, which I supplied to them. If I hadn’t, they would have suspended my registration.
And if you are stopped by the police, they will ask for proof of insurance, as they did to me a while ago, when I had a minor collision, and the other driver rang the police on his mobile phone to report it.
Why would he phone the police for a minor collision?
In the UK something like that is sorted out between the respective parties insurers or even settled without involving them.
I believe that the only time we have to contact police after an accident is if someone is injured
It can be helpful to have a police report to determine fault. If you cause an accident and your insurance company has to pay the other guy, they will jack up your rates. Without a police report, a dispute as to fault is a matter of he-said she-said.
That said, a police report is typically not necessary for a minor fender-bender. I would get one for anything requiring substantial repairs, though, even if there are no injuries.
We like it that way, you oppressive limey. 
Oppressive? Limey?
You wouldn’t like us to burn that White House of yours again would you?
I don’t know why he rang. However, I’m pretty sure that he was in the wrong in the collision, and I suspect the police officer who turned up agreed with that, as (after seeing my papers and hearing my side of the story) the last I saw as I drove off was her apparently writing him a ticket. So phoning the police was probably not in his best interest.
In other words:
“Nice little white house, you’ve got there, guv’nor: looks really pretty. Shame to see it burn down again. Now, for just a few million quid, I can persuade my Canadian friends not to visit you again with their box of matches, if you get my drift.”
That’s the same way it is here. You’re not required to contact police unless there is an injury, or, I think if it’s over some big amount in damage. Last time I got into a minor accident (10 years ago or so), it was minor, broken tailight and a bumper dent, or something… don’t remember the details. I was clearly at fault, and wrote him a check for 150? 175? And it was over in 5 minutes.
There may be people who call the police over a minor accident, but for minor shit it’s usually handled the same way here as there.
Plus usually if police and insurance companies are involved, it usually means a ticket and insurance rates going up. In most minor accidents, I’d guess that it’s pretty well known who was at fault, and the at-fault party has an incentive to pay up.
I’d be curious to know what percentage of minor accidents actually involve someone calling the police (maybe its higher now due to cell phones?), but I’d think it’s still pretty small.
Even if there is some massive damage we don’t have to contact police.
It’s thrashed out between insurance companies and can take bloody ages.
I’ve never had an accident that was my fault (touch wood) and to err on the side of caution I always keep a camera in my car to take pics immediately after any accident/s
The amount in CA is $750 in damages (used to be $500). Given what body shops charge, that isn’t a lot of damages, and an awful lot of fender-benders which should be reported according to the letter of the law aren’t. Nobody seems to mind. I got rear ended a couple years ago, and there were three cars involved (somebody actually rear ended the guy stopped behind me, and turned him into a “sandwich”). No report, we just exchanged insurers. My car was still new, and I wasn’t inclined to not fix a rear end ding. The body shopped charged the insurer well over that amount for my car alone, let alone the damages to the poor sod who was in the middle.
In Virginia, you can pay an “uninsured motorist fee” and register your car, without insurance. Wonderful idea, since the fee is less than really bad drivers pay for insurance, thus encouraging the most dangerous drivers to remain uninsured.
Tris