SR-22 insurance in Vermont

Vermont's proof requirement is short — one year from the crash, conviction or judgment, or from the day you become eligible for reinstatement — but the statute suspends your license on the very day the insurance ends.

Who has to give proof in Vermont

Chapter 11 of Vermont's Title 23 sets out when the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles requires proof of financial responsibility, and at what amounts: $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident / $10,000 property damage — 25/50/10. The authority is Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 23 sec. 801(a).

The list of convictions that trigger it is specific: a death resulting from careless and negligent or reckless driving; any violation of section 1201 (the impaired-driving section) or a suspension under section 1205; failing to stop and render assistance after a crash causing injury; taking or using a vehicle without the owner's consent; and driving after suspension, revocation or refusal of a license.

Proof follows the driver

The next section says the proof “shall cover a person in the operation of any and all motor vehicles operated by him or her.” A Vermont filing is a driver filing, not a filing for one car. Once the Commissioner sends notice, the driver has 20 days to furnish it; after that the license is suspended until it arrives.

One year — counted from which date

The waiver section reads: the Commissioner “shall relieve an operator from the obligation to furnish proof of financial responsibility after one year from the crash, conviction, or judgment giving rise to the obligation.” Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 23 sec. 809(a). The word is shall — the release is not discretionary once the year has passed.

There is a catch for suspended drivers. Where a suspension or revocation resulted from the conviction, the driver is not relieved “until one year after his or her reinstatement eligibility date.” That is a later date than the conviction, often by the whole length of the suspension.

The three-year tier

Three kinds of conviction lengthen it to three years: careless and negligent driving resulting in death, reckless driving resulting in death, and a second or subsequent conviction under section 1201. Again, where a suspension resulted, the three years run from the reinstatement eligibility date.

The day the insurance ends, the license does too

Vermont does not wait for a notice cycle to catch up. “Any person required to furnish proof of financial responsibility shall have his or her license or privilege to operate a motor vehicle suspended and shall surrender the license on the date that the insurance expires or is terminated.”

The insurer's side is written separately: a policy offered as proof is “noncancellable except after 15 days' notice to the Commissioner.” The two rules fit together only if the driver keeps the policy continuously in force — a lapse is a suspension from its own date.

Filing errors are the insurer's problem

Vermont also allows proof by any computer-generated means the Commissioner approves, and says in terms that “an insurance or surety company shall bear responsibility for its errors, including failure to file in a timely manner.” A driver whose insurer missed the filing has that sentence to point to.

What this page does not cover

Vermont's DUI penalties, suspension lengths and interlock rules are in sections 1201 to 1213 and related provisions of Title 23, which this site has not read, so none of them is described here. Section 800 of chapter 11 also carries a contingently amended version of its general insurance requirement; this page uses the proof amounts in section 801.

A note on sources

The Legislature's statute site did not respond to the machine this page was built on, so chapter 11 was read from a published reproduction.

Getting a comparable quote in Vermont

Ask for a driver filing

The proof has to cover you in any vehicle you drive, not only one car.

Check the limits line

25/50/10.

Never let it lapse

The license is suspended on the date the insurance ends.

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

Common questions about the Vermont SR-22