States without a true mandate: New Hampshire and Virginia's old fee

As of November 2026, New Hampshire is the one state that does not require liability insurance at all. It asks for proof of financial responsibility only after a crash or a serious conviction. Virginia let drivers register an uninsured car for a $500 fee until July 1, 2024, and no longer does. Florida requires coverage for property damage and for its own injury benefits but not for injuries you cause to others. None of these arrangements shields a driver from a lawsuit, and none protects the people a driver hurts.

The phrase "no mandate" covers three quite different designs, and each leaves a different gap.

Three designs, side by side

Triple-I's background paper on compulsory auto insurance describes the rare exceptions this way: New Hampshire "does not have a compulsory insurance liability law," and, in the version we read, Virginia required "motorists to have insurance or register an uninsured vehicle for a significant fee." The Virginia sentence is out of date after the 2024 repeal, which is why this article treats it in the past tense.

New Hampshire: the law arrives after the crash

New Hampshire's rules live in RSA chapter 264, titled "Accidents and Financial Responsibility." For a plain-language walk through the whole system, see Financial responsibility vs mandatory insurance: New Hampshire. This section covers a narrower question: what counts as proof, and what the paperwork looks like.

The amount

RSA 264:20 defines proof of financial responsibility as the "ability to respond in damages" in amounts of $25,000 for bodily injury or death to one person, $50,000 for two or more people in one accident, and $25,000 for property damage. In shorthand that is 25/50/25, and the statute requires the proof "for each motor vehicle, trailer or semi-trailer registered by such person" when proof is required.

The three ways to show it

The same chapter lists the methods:

• An insurer's certificate (RSA 264:21). The insurer files a certificate with the state. A "continuous certificate" covers future responsibility and, by the statute, stays in effect for no less than 20 days after the director receives written notice that it is being cancelled.
• Money or securities on deposit (RSA 264:22). The person gives the department a receipt from the state treasurer showing a deposit of cash, or securities approved by the treasurer, in the required amount. The securities must be of a type savings banks or trust funds may legally buy. The deposit remains subject to execution to satisfy a judgment of the kind the chapter describes.
• No outstanding judgments (RSA 264:23). The treasurer will not accept a deposit unless there is evidence that no unsatisfied judgments against the depositor are on record in the superior court of the depositor's home county.

A policy typically costs far less than tying up $25,000 or more with the treasurer, so the certificate route is the practical one for most people. The blog on surety bonds, cash deposits and self-insurance instead of a policy compares the alternatives across several states.

What an SR-22 is in New Hampshire

The administrative rules define the document directly. Under Saf-C 7502.01, an "SR-22 certificate" is a uniform document an insurance company files under RSA 264:21 certifying that the policyholder carries New Hampshire's minimum liability coverage, and an "SR-26 certificate" is the notice that the SR-22 has been cancelled. So the thing drivers elsewhere call an SR-22 is the ordinary mechanism here, and the guide on SR-22 insurance explained applies. Both are insurer filings, not forms a driver submits.

When does anyone get ordered to file? RSA 264:2 lets the director suspend a license and registrations after specified convictions, including driving under the influence, failing to stop and report an accident, homicide or assault arising from driving, and a second conviction for excessive speed or reckless driving, "unless and until" the person gives and maintains proof of future financial responsibility. RSA 264:3 does the same after a reported accident with no insurance in force. Under RSA 264:7, the department may waive the filing after three years from the accident or conviction if no new record would justify continuing it.

Two details that surprise people

Periodic payments. If a person cannot afford the full security the director demands, RSA 264:4-a directs the director to consider ability to pay and to order periodic payments instead, and the statute says the director cannot suspend the person who makes the ordered payments. It also bars ordering payments from income that is exempt from execution or garnishment.

The security has a ceiling and a clock. Under RSA 264:4, security can never exceed the actual damages or the amounts in RSA 264:20. Under RSA 264:5, it answers only for a lawsuit "begun not later than 2 years" after the accident, and then it is returned. That is useful context for the headline question. A system built on security is a system built on a capped, temporary pool.

Virginia's fee: what it was and what it was not

Until July 1, 2024, a Virginia owner registering a car could certify that it was insured or declare it uninsured and pay a fee. The Virginia DMV's description while the program ran was blunt. According to the department's former Uninsured Motor Vehicle Fee page, the owner paid "a $500 uninsured motor vehicle fee in addition to normal registration fees," and "payment of the $500 fee does not provide the motorist with any insurance coverage. If involved in an accident, the uninsured motorist remains personally liable." The fee was valid for twelve months and could be prorated.

Four features are worth separating:

1. It was a registration fee, not insurance. Nothing in the payment reached a person the driver injured.
2. It created a class of legally registered uninsured vehicles. Virginia's UM statute, Va. Code 38.2-2206, defines an "uninsured motor vehicle" as one with no bodily injury and property damage liability insurance in the amounts specified by section 46.2-472, among other situations. A fee-paying owner's car fit that definition, so an injured person's own UM coverage would be the likely source of payment.
3. Lying about it had a price. The DMV's page said an owner who falsely certified insurance and was found uninsured faced suspension of all driver and registration privileges, a $500 statutory fee, a $145 reinstatement fee, and filing proof of insurance for three years.
4. It was small. A WAVY television report said in 2024 that the DMV put the number of Virginians paying the fee at more than 6,000. That is a small number against the state's registered vehicles.

A 2016 law added a payment plan for people whose privileges had been suspended and who owed the $500 fee, according to the DMV's 2016 legislation bulletin; that bulletin also shows the fee was $500 by then.

We could not confirm from an official page the year the fee began or the year it reached $500, so this article gives neither date. Virginia was not the only state to try a fee: South Carolina also repealed an uninsured-vehicle registration fee option effective July 1, 2024 (2023 Act No. 51), a fact checked by earlier writers on this site. The blog on who goes uninsured and why: cost, lapses and enforcement gaps looks at why drivers go uninsured.

Why it ended, and what replaced it

The Virginia DMV's July 1, 2024 notice states that effective that day "the option to pay a fee rather than maintain insurance coverage for your vehicle will be eliminated," that the department "will no longer collect" the fee, and that all registered vehicles must have a policy meeting Virginia's liability limits. The notice does not give a reason; the legislative record is the place to look for one.

What replaced the fee is enforcement of a true mandate. Under Va. Code 46.2-706, every person registering a vehicle must certify that it is insured, and the DMV can compare its records with liability data sent by insurers. If the owner refuses or neglects to submit insurance information within 30 days when asked, the DMV must suspend the driver's license, registrations and plates until the owner pays a $600 noncompliance fee and furnishes proof of future financial responsibility. The DMV's "New to Virginia" page lists the same $600 fee, a $145 reinstatement fee, and higher insurance premiums for the next three years.

The limits also rose. Va. Code 46.2-472 sets $30,000 / $60,000 / $20,000 for policies effective from January 1, 2022 up to the end of 2024, and $50,000 / $100,000 / $25,000 for policies effective on or after January 1, 2025. Because Virginia's UM limits must equal liability limits unless a named insured rejects the additional coverage, the higher minimums raise the default UM protection for Virginia policyholders too.

Florida: a mandate with a gap

Florida is the third design, and it is easy to overlook. Section 324.022 requires owners and operators of registered vehicles to "establish and maintain the ability to respond in damages" for $10,000 of property damage, and Florida's no-fault law requires PIP. But Triple-I's table of uninsured-motorist rates adds a footnote for Florida: its compulsory auto laws "apply to personal injury protection (PIP) and physical damage, but not to third party bodily injury coverage." In practice a Florida driver can meet the registration rules and still carry no coverage for injuring someone else. Florida's financial responsibility law in chapter 324 is where the state deals with liability for crashes; check its current requirements with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. See the Florida Statutes.

What the numbers show, and what they do not

The Insurance Research Council estimates the uninsured rate from claims, not from a count of cars: the ratio of uninsured motorist claims to bodily injury claims. In its 2025 study, via Triple-I's uninsured motorist page, the 2023 estimates were:

Two cautions apply. First, Virginia's figure covers the last year in which the fee was still available, so it describes the old regime, and a post-2024 study is needed to say whether anything changed. Second, these are claims-based estimates, and many things besides the legal design move them: poverty, enforcement, population, and the share of insurers' policies in the nonstandard market. New Hampshire sitting below the national average does not prove mandates are pointless, and Florida sitting well above it does not prove that a missing bodily injury mandate caused the gap.

Triple-I's background paper says that laws in most states "have proven ineffective in reducing the number of drivers who are uninsured" and gives reasons such as affordability and the cost of tracking violators. That is a fair summary of the debate: mandates in the other 49 states have not eliminated uninsured driving.

For a policyholder the practical effect is indirect. Your premium includes the cost of your UM coverage, which exists because some drivers are uninsured; Uninsured drivers and your premium: how UM costs are priced into rates explains the pricing logic. We do not publish a premium comparison for these states here, because the average expenditure figures that are available mix many causes and would imply a link the evidence does not support.

A worked example: the same crash under three designs

Say a driver with no insurance runs a red light and injures a pedestrian, who proves $90,000 in medical bills and lost pay. This is a made-up case. The driver owns a modest home and a used car.

• New Hampshire. After the crash is reported, the department can suspend the driver's license and registration until security is posted and future responsibility is proved. Under RSA 264:4 the security cannot exceed the 25/50/25 amounts, so at most $25,000 is set aside for the pedestrian's injury claim, and only for a suit filed within two years. The rest of any judgment remains the driver's personal debt, and the pedestrian's own UM coverage, if any, is the other source of payment.
• Virginia before July 2024, fee paid. The driver's $500 secured nothing. The DMV said the owner remained personally liable. The pedestrian looks to a lawsuit against the driver and to their own UM coverage.
• A state with a compulsory law, driver insured at 25/50/25. The driver's insurer defends the suit and pays up to $25,000 for the injury claim, with the same gap above the limit that the other designs leave. The difference is that the money exists before the crash.

The point of the example is not that any design makes the pedestrian whole. It is that a mandate moves the date on which a pool of money is guaranteed to exist from "after the claim" to "before the crash." The blog on caused a crash without insurance: personal liability and judgments explains what a judgment against an uninsured driver can reach.

If you live in, or move through, one of these states

1. Read the statute and the DMV page for your state, not a summary, because these rules have changed recently. Virginia's change took effect July 1, 2024; Florida's rules sit in chapters 324 and 627.
2. Check your contracts. A loan or lease almost always requires insurance regardless of state law, and many landlords and employers do too.
3. Weigh your assets, not the law. Without a policy, a judgment can reach savings and wages and property, subject to your state's exemptions. The mandate question is separate from the exposure question.
4. Carry UM coverage if you carry anything. In New Hampshire, RSA 264:15 requires insurers to include uninsured and hit-and-run coverage at least equal to the state's bodily injury proof amounts, and it makes the UM limits equal to your liability limits if you buy more.
5. If you drive into another state, that state's law applies to you there. Use the state car insurance requirements lookup tool and the guide on Proof of insurance laws and digital ID cards before crossing a border.
6. If you are relocating, do not assume your old state's rules follow you; see moving to a new state: insurance, registration and license deadlines.

Common questions

Is there anywhere in the United States where I can drive uninsured with no consequence?

No. New Hampshire is the exception to compulsory insurance, but its financial responsibility law suspends your license and registration after an uninsured at-fault crash, and an injured person can sue you for the full loss. Every other state requires coverage in some form, and the penalties are in penalties for driving without insurance.

Did Virginia's $500 fee buy any protection?

No. The Virginia DMV's own description said it provided no insurance coverage and that the uninsured driver "remains personally liable" after an accident. The fee was a price for being allowed to register without a policy.

Does New Hampshire's system make my insurance cost more?

The evidence we found does not show that. New Hampshire's IRC-estimated uninsured rate of 10.0% in 2023 was below the national 15.4%. Premium levels have many causes, and we did not find a clean comparison, so we do not claim one.

Why do most states require insurance up front?

The main argument, visible in Triple-I's discussion, is public support for making sure money exists to pay injured people, together with the weakness of after-the-fact collection from drivers who have little. The counterargument is that mandates are hard to enforce and do not eliminate uninsured driving. Both statements are true at once.

Key takeaways

• New Hampshire uses financial responsibility instead of mandatory insurance: proof of 25/50/25 is demanded after a crash or listed conviction, usually through an insurer's SR-22 filing.
• Virginia's $500 fee, which ended July 1, 2024, was a registration charge that gave no coverage, and the owner stayed personally liable for any crash.
• Virginia now requires insurance at registration, enforces it with a $600 noncompliance fee and suspension, and has had 50/100/25 minimums since 2025.
• Florida's mandate covers property damage and PIP but not bodily injury liability to others.
• No design guarantees that an injured person is paid. Your own UM coverage matters in every one of these states.