SR-22 insurance in Nebraska

Nebraska keeps proof on file for 3 years after a conviction suspension — and if the driver who was convicted borrowed your car, the same section can suspend your license and registrations unless the car was insured.

What a Nebraska certified policy must carry

Nebraska's Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act sets the limits of the policy that is certified as proof: $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident / $25,000 property damage — 25/50/25. The authority is Neb. Rev. Stat. sec. 60-534.

That is $25,000 for injury to or death of one person, $50,000 for everyone injured in one accident, and $25,000 for property of others.

Every certified policy covers cars you do not own

The next section adds a requirement that is easy to miss. The certified policy must also insure the named person against liability “arising out of the use by him of any motor vehicle not owned by him,” within the same territory and at the same limits. So a Nebraska owner's policy that carries a filing also follows the driver into a borrowed car.

When the convicted driver was not the owner

When the department suspends or revokes a license on a conviction, it also suspends every registration in that person's name — unless the person gives and maintains proof for three years. Neb. Rev. Stat. sec. 60-554(1)(a) covers the release; section 60-524 covers the trigger.

The second subsection of that section goes further than most. If the convicted driver was not the owner of the vehicle, and drove it with the owner's permission, the department also suspends the owner's license and all the owner's registrations, unless the owner gives and maintains proof for three years.

The exception that protects insured owners

The owner's suspension does not apply if, at the time of the violation, there was a liability policy or bond on the vehicle, or on the operation of it, or other liability cover the department accepts, or the owner was a qualified self-insurer. In practice, an owner who kept the car insured is outside it. An owner who lent an uninsured car is not.

Three years to maintain, and then a clean look-back

The conviction sections say the proof is maintained “for three years.” The release section then lets the department cancel the certificate at any time after three years from the date proof was required, if the three years before the request are clean of a conviction or bail forfeiture that would permit suspension. A new conviction late in the period moves the earliest release date.

Cancellation, and who hears about it first

Nebraska's cancellation section puts the insured first. Certified insurance cannot be canceled until at least ten days after a notice of cancellation is mailed to the insured. Only if the insurance is not reinstated within those ten days does the insurer file the cancellation with the department.

Those ten days are a window to fix a missed payment before the department is told. A replacement policy that is certified ends the earlier certification on its own effective date.

Reinstatement fees

Where filing proof is a prerequisite to getting a license back, the fee is $125 if the license was revoked and $50 if it was suspended. A suspended registration carries its own fee of $50. All three are set in section 60-505.02.

Surrender, deposits and bonds

The certificate can also be released on death, permanent incapacity or surrender of license and registration. A bond or cash deposit is not released while a damages action is pending, a judgment is unpaid, or if the person was in an injury or damage accident within the preceding two years — a longer hold than the one-year rule in several states on this site.

An owner can give proof for a household member

Nebraska lets an owner file proof on behalf of someone who drives for them or lives in their household. Where a person required to give proof is, or becomes, an employee of an owner or a member of the owner's immediate family or household, the department accepts the owner's proof in place of that person's own, so they can drive a vehicle the owner has given proof for. The restriction is printed on the back of the person's license. The non-owner guide compares this with other states.

What this page does not cover

Nebraska's DUI penalties, suspension lengths and ignition interlock requirements are in provisions this site has not read, so none of them is described here.

A note on sources

The Legislature's statute site did not resolve from the machine this page was built on, so the Nebraska Revised Statutes were read from a published reproduction of the 2025 edition. The Legislature's own addresses are printed beside each citation.

Getting a comparable quote in Nebraska

Check the limits line

25/50/25. A quote at lower limits does not meet the Act.

Cover every registration in your name

A conviction suspension reaches all registrations unless proof covers them.

If you lend your car

Keep it insured. The owner exception applies only where a policy or bond was in effect at the time.

Nebraska's clock is compared with every other state's in the filing-period guide.

Common questions about the Nebraska SR-22