Consequences of No-Insurance and No-Registration Citations in South Carolina

Attorney Answer

Expect your rates to go up — but the premium is not your biggest problem. An uninsured-vehicle citation in South Carolina is a misdemeanor that carries a license and registration suspension and a reinstatement fee.

Under S.C. Code § 56-10-520, operating or allowing the operation of an uninsured motor vehicle is a misdemeanor. A first offense carries a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $200, or thirty days' imprisonment; a second, a $200 fine or thirty days or both; a third or subsequent, imprisonment of not less than forty-five days nor more than six months. The Department of Motor Vehicles must suspend the driver's license and all registration certificates and license plates, and reinstatement requires payment of a statutory fee, set at $600 and adjusted annually. Only convictions within the five years including and immediately preceding the last conviction count as prior convictions.

On the rate question itself there is no statute. What your insurer charges is an underwriting decision. In practice a lapse in coverage is one of the strongest rate factors there is — carriers price a gap in continuous coverage heavily, and a suspension on your record compounds it. Calling these "nonmoving violations" understates the situation: a coverage lapse plus a suspension is a different category from a parking ticket.

What you can do 1. Get insurance in force today if you have not already; every additional day of lapse hurts both the case and the rate. 2. Read the citation for your court date and appear. Ignoring it adds a failure-to-appear problem on top of the citation. 3. Bring proof of registration and of insurance to court. Some charges resolve differently when the driver shows the defect has been cured. 4. Ask the clerk or a defense lawyer whether your license or plates are already suspended and what reinstatement requires, including any filing your insurer must make. 5. Shop coverage after the case resolves rather than during, and expect to be quoted as a high-risk driver for a period.

⏱ Time limits apply. The court date on your citation is a hard deadline, and missing it creates a separate charge. Whether a prior conviction counts against you under S.C. Code § 56-10-520 depends on the five-year window in the statute and on your own record.