I've just had my first offense dui charge following an accident, should I go through my insurance?

Posted by on . 4 comments.

I was charged w 07-.08. dui. I'm 32, a professional female with a great driving record. My car is totaled and I'm not sure how much the other car damage is yet. Should I try to take care of it myself without notifying my insurance while I work through the court system? Perhaps buy a new car, and pay them privately? I'm hoping to get my charge lessened if possible. I'm also afraid that my insurance will drop me or my rates will skyrocket. I have always been so careful and have never been in this kind of situation. Please help...


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  1. Tara says:
    July 30, 2010 at 12:13 pm

    carquotes.sinfree.net – check these plans. As I know their rates for bad driving record is not such expensive as from other companies.

  2. grand lake bum says:
    July 30, 2010 at 12:13 pm

    You are screwed, how you gonna get to work with no car and no insurance? Your not. You will be on the streets soon.

  3. Michael says:
    July 30, 2010 at 12:13 pm

    File the claim, the accident will be settled more fairly through them. Since you have the DUI and your insurance company will know about it you will be stuck with increased rates regardless. Typically insurance companies won’t charge for spurious violations. (Spurious violations are accidents and tickets at the same time). In other words they will either charge you for the DUI or the accident but rarely both. Since the DUI is a major violation you will be charged with that one and the accident will likely not affect you.

    So you may as well go ahead and file the claim as you will have enough out of pocket expenses related to the dui and all fines anyways.

    As for the risk of being dropped, the accident likely won’t have any bearing on that impact. If you had a clean record before you won’t get dropped for the accident. You may be dropped due to the DUI but again that will happen regardless if it’s going to happen so go ahead and file.

    Also if your rates skyrocket, I doubt the increase rates will exceed the out of pocket expenses for the damage to 2 vehicles since 1 is totaled.

  4. shjf47 says:
    July 30, 2010 at 12:13 pm

    Turn in a claim to your insurance company. They will most likely cancel your policy after they pay the damages (they would most likely can cell your policy even if you didn’t file a claim, when the found out about the DUI and accident. ). When you get a new policy your premium will reflect the DUI and the accident. Insurance run your Driving record and a CLUE report (it tells them about any claims you have filed with any insurance company), among other things before they rate a policy request. On the other hand, if you have lots of money you could do as you suggest and pay for the damage to the other vehicle and purchase another car for yourself. That way when you go to get insurance only the DUI will show.

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