Car Insurance Quotes: Auto Insurance Requirements in Louisiana

"The Louisiana Department of Insurance characterizes auto insurance fraud in two ways, "hard" fraud and "soft" fraud. Hard fraud is a "dedicated effort" by criminals to defraud insurance companies by committing illegal acts, such as staging accidents. Soft fraud is more common, and an example of soft fraud would be claiming more damage on an accident report than actually happened. There are many types of fraud that fall into the hard- and soft-fraud categories. A few examples would be claiming that a "hidden" car is actually stolen, insufficient reimbursement by a claims adjuster, cutting corners on repairs and filing a deceptive claim for a previous accident. Auto insurance fraud costs the state millions of dollars each year. This breaks down to $950 each year for every family in the state.

Alcohol-Related Accidents

Louisiana has approximately 850 auto accident deaths each year with roughly 300 of them resulting from driving under the influence of alcohol. This means that over one-third of the fatal accidents in the state of Louisiana are caused by drunk driving. In recent years, Louisiana has implemented stricter enforcement of drunk driving laws, and this has lowered their number of drunk driving fatalities slightly. But, even with fewer fatalities, no one should die at the hands of a drunk driver, and one death is too many.

Strange Louisiana Laws

In the state of Louisiana, "It is illegal to tie an alligator to a fire hydrant," and "It is illegal to throw Mardi Gras beads from a third-story window." Last, but not least, is this law: "It is illegal for a woman to drive a car unless her husband is waving a flag in front of it."

Driving in Louisiana

Did you know that Louisiana has a first-rate children's museum in the city of New Orleans? People vacationing with children would do well to include the Louisiana Children's Museum on their itinerary. The museum even has free days where children and their parents can enjoy the museum for free. No matter where travelers decide to venture out in the state of Louisiana, they will drive by waterways where they can ride on paddle boats, go on a haunted city exploration or take a driving tour through Creole County, one of National Geo graphic's "Ultimate Road Trips."These are just a few of the attractions that are popular with Louisiana's tourists.

Auto Insurance Requirements

Louisiana residents who drive must prove financial responsibility by purchasing liability insurance from an agent and carrier authorized to sell automobile insurance in the state of Louisiana as follows:

• Bodily injury or death per person: $15,000
• Total payout per accident for bodily injury or death: $30,000
• Property damage: $25,000

In Louisiana, if an insurance carrier cancels a driver's insurance coverage, his or her license and registration will be suspended. The driver has 10 days in which to re-establish coverage. If the driver fails to purchase new insurance coverage within that 10-day period, there will be a fine assessed as follows:

• $50: 11 - 30 days
• $125: 31 - 90 days
• $225: 91 days or more."