3. Insurance
The SR-22.
If you are convicted of a Mendocino County DUI in Ukiah, or lose the Santa Rosa DMV hearing, you will likely be required to obtain an SR22 Insurance Form from your insurance company to file with the DMV in order to be eligible for a driver license. The typical required duration for an SR-22 in Mendocino County is three years.
Your attorney should inform you that the SR 22 is a promise from your insurance company to inform the DMV if you ever lose insurance. Naturally, prior to filing such a form, no one would be aware of whether you have insurance or not. The purpose is to empower DMV to suspend your license immediately upon you becoming uninsured. SR-22's are required for licensing several kinds of higher risk drivers.
Some insurance companies transmit the form directly to Sacramento DMV in a matter of hours after your request, and others take up to several weeks and actually mail you the original for you to file directly with the Ukiah DMV. SR-22's can come in different shapes and sizes. Click below to see what an SR-22 looks like:
Sample Electronic SR22 Receipt
Shop around. The simple fact of a DUI should not result in cancellation of your insurance policy. Some aggresive companies may cancel you (see for example this State Farm Cancellation for a single DUI) but offer you a different policy with a subsidiary company, and regardless, many insurance companies offer insurance and this SR-22 form to people with one or more DUI's, but this may be a good time to shop for the most affordable insurance for your unique situation. In addition, if you do not wish to inform your current insurance company of a new DUI, or your company refuses to issue an SR-22 until you jump hoops or unless certain conditions are satisfied, then you may wish to consider contacting a different insurance company that will issue the SR22 at the time you want it, such as John Macdonald Insurance Service, Inc., or Serenity Insurance without immediately increasing your rates with your current company (these are not endorsements but just resources to check out for fast SR-22's if you like the company and their quotes and service).
You can find additional information on this site about SR-22 insurance by clicking on Resources and then clicking on links under "DUI Compliance - Insurance" including an FAQ search engine which contains an answer bank for many common insurance and SR-22 questions such as rate increases, multiple vehicles or insured parties, interplay with other types of policies, out of state requirements, etc.