“How much is my insurance going to go up after my DWI charges in New Jersey?”

Passaic County DWI Lawyers in Clifton, Wayne, and Little Falls NJ

Before addressing the actual monthly increase of your insurance costs, it’s important to note that you will be expected to pay a $1000 surcharge, every year, for three years after your DWI conviction in New Jersey.   This isn’t technically an insurance premium, but a “DMV Surcharge”.  Basically, it’s another way for the State to fund itself by virtue of your DWI conviction.  Since we’re talking about costs, I figured that I would mention it.

The actual amount that you insurance costs go up on a monthly basis will differ from policy to policy and a lot of that depends on your current “risk class”.  A DUI is almost always guaranteed to escalate you into a “high risk” insurance class.  On average, it’s been shown that insurance rates go up by 94% in the first year after your license reinstatement.  That’s virtually doubling the cost of insurance.  Depending on the type of coverage that you require, this can get costly.  If you’re the type of person to carry collision insurance on top of liability insurance, you can expect a heavy monthly bill.

After three years, your insurance costs are on average 64 percent higher.  Your still shelling out quite a few extra dollars, but at least you’ve made some headway towards getting back to normal.  Don’t get caught speeding!

Like any other motor vehicle “flaw” on your record, everything fades with time.  Insurance companies will place less and less emphasis on this mark as you demonstrate a clean driving record.  Many insurance companies don’t keep track of accidents or tickets that are more than five years old. Again, this will differ from policy to policy.  Your best bet is to shop around, use services to compare rates from multiple companies simultaneously, and do your homework.

Avoid Insurance Surcharges on DWI By Getting the Case Dismissed

As an alternative, I would strongly recommend that you fight your DWI charges from the beginning.  If you avoid conviction altogether, you won’t end up spending an extra dollar on insurance.  For less than the price of the DMV surcharges, you could have a lawyer that might be able to get your charges dismissed entirely.  For more information on fighting DWI or DUI charges, please take a look at the videos below:

Videos on “How To Get out of DWI Charges” are listed below. Please Click Here to answer any other New Jersey DWI related questions that you might have.

Challenge the Initial Motor Vehicle Stoppage
Challenge the Field Sobriety Tests
Challenge the 20 Minute Observation Period
Challenge the Alcotest 7110 machine itself

For more about DWI Insurance Surcharges, Wikipedia might have some good information.