Court Suspends Mandatory Car Insurance Law

The state Supreme Court on Thursday halted enforcement of the state’s new mandatory auto insurance requirement until it decides the legality of the law.

The law, which went into effect earlier this year, requires the California Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies to request proof of insurance from every driver stopped for a moving violation.

Under the law, drivers without proof of “financial responsibility” can be fined between $100 and $240 and may lose their licenses if they fail to obtain insurance within 60 days after the citation.

A CHP spokesman said Thursday that officers were being told to stop asking ticketed drivers for proof of insurance.

Required Proof

Acting in a suit brought in Los Angeles by lawyers for Public Advocates Inc., a public interest firm, the court ordered the state to cease enforcing the law that has resulted in 2,000 citations a day against drivers without the required proof.

The court, as is its practice, did not indicate when it would decide the case. Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and Justices Allen Broussard, Cruz Reynoso and Stanley Mosk voted to hear the case, the minimum number needed to review an issue.

The high court’s action followed decisions by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Norman Dowds and a state appeal court’s refusal to block implementation of the law.

The suit was brought on behalf of seven individuals and several groups who charged that the law is invalid, because legislators who passed it failed to provide that motorists would have access to affordable auto insurance.

The seven individual plaintiffs maintained that they were unable to get inexpensive insurance because they lived in “red-lined” neighborhoods, in which insurance rates were high. All had perfect driving records. One of the people gave up driving rather than break the law, the suit said.

Lois Salisbury, a lawyer for the group, said as many 55,000 motorists have had their licenses revoked already. She noted that in Los Angeles, 15% of the drivers have no insurance, and in South-Central Los Angeles, motorists must pay $1,000 to $2,000 yearly for minimal coverage.

Immediate Protest

The court’s action brought an immediate protest from state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), author of the new mandatory insurance law.

“I am greatly saddened,” Robbins said, “that the process of eliminating uninsured motorists, which was working so well, has been stopped dead in its tracks by four justices of the court.”

He said he was confident that the new law would be upheld when the court makes its final decision.

However, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, a longtime foe of so-called insurance red-lining, hailed the high court’s move.

“It is simply wrong to require drivers to purchase car insurance when the rates are set in a discriminatory manner based on where a person lives rather than on his or her driving record,” said Hahn, whose district includes South-Central Los Angeles, where the rates are among the highest in the city or where insurance is unavailable.

Norma Kaufman contributed to this story.