Can You Do Without Florida Motorcycle Insurance?

So you’ve purchased a cool new motorcycle and it’s time to get it insured. Of course you want the best price possible, so you do a little research.

Costs will vary from state to state, but if you happen to need Florida motorcycle insurance, then you’re in luck. At least, to a certain extent. While insurance regulations differ from state to state, you might find it interesting in this age of mandatory insurance requirements that in Florida you are not required to carry motorcycle insurance.

So if Florida motorcycle insurance is a moot point, does that make Florida a heaven for Harley or a sanctuary for Suzuki? Not necessarily. Just because Florida doesn’t require motorcycle insurance, it doesn’t follow that same state doesn’t have stringent laws which effect motorcyclists. As a matter of fact, if you’re not careful in Florida, you could lose your driving privileges or even get your fancy new bike taken from you by the authorities.

Some folks may not realize that if you are in a wreck in Florida, and it’s determined you are at fault but you have no liability insurance, you could be charged with failure of Florida’s financial responsibility law. If that were to happen, the authorities in Florida could take away your driving privileges. So while Florida won’t technically require you to have motorcycly insurance, riding without liability insurance is considered just as irresponsible in Florida as it is anywhere else in the nation. But the possible punishments don’t stop there!

Florida has dug up and has been using an old civil seizure law as part of their effort to combat speeding sport motorcycle riders. The general idea of the law is that once a Florida law enforcement officer has turned on their lights to pull someone over, and then that person allegedly speeds up, then their motorcycles can be seized. At that point it is determined the person has committed a felony, i.e. “aggravated fleeing and eluding”. So because the motorcycle has been used in the commission of a felony, it can then be seized by the authorities.

So while at first glance Florida may seem like a biker’s paradise. After all, there’s the great riding weather and freedom from motorcycle insurance. But with freedom there still comes responsibility, and Florida expects its bikers to be as responsible as anywhere else.