A Consumer's Guide to the Texas SR-22 - Part 5

Should I Get The SR-22 Through The State Pool?

I often run into another situation that I feel it is important that you are made aware. Due to a lack of experience in dealing with the many, varied situations that require an SR-22 filing, some insurance agents try to make all “square-peg” SR-22 requirements fit into the same “round-hole” solution. This usually occurs when a person turns to their “standard” or “preferred” insurance agent to obtain the SR-22. These agents tend to be somewhat less knowledgeable about these filings because the SR-22 is not a normal part of their everyday business; but they do understand that because this client needs an SR-22, they are at risk of losing this customer. So, they offer to provide the SR-22 by selling the client an SR-22 policy written through the Texas Auto Insurance Plan Association (TAIPA), or commonly referred to as the State Pool.

The TAIPA is a program that allows a Texas insurance agent to write a policy that will provide the minimum limits of Liability, Personal Injury Protection and Uninsured/Underinsured Motorists Coverage for a client who is unable to obtain a policy in the general marketplace. It is designed as an alternative insurance market for those drivers who have been deemed uninsurable. All insurance companies licensed to write automobile insurance in Texas (with the exception of County Mutual companies) are required to be members of TAIPA. These companies are assigned the policies of these otherwise uninsurable drivers based on the number of voluntary policies the company writes… so if Company A writes 15% of the automobile policies in Texas, then Company A will be assigned 15% of the TAIPA policies.

Even if the agent does everything correctly (for instance, he submits the application for a Non-Owner’s policy rather than an Owner’s Policy and thus avoids the duplicate coverage problems I outlined in Part 3 of this series), there are still some serious problems that can arise. To understand these problems, it is helpful to understand how the TAIPA application process works:

First, the agent completes and submits an application and premium payment for the client to TAIPA, this application has a place where the SR-22 filing is requested. Instead of the actual SR-22 form, the client receives a copy of this application. Once TAIPA receives the application requesting the SR-22, what happens next depends on how the application was completed. If the application indicates that the client’s driver license is currently suspended and a separate check for the reinstatement fee is attached or the application indicates that the client’s driver license is currently not suspended and no fee is required, TAIPA will issue the SR-22 and submit it directly to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Otherwise, TAIPA will issue the SR-22 and mail it back to the agent. TAIPA then sends the application to the assigned company and that company processes the policy.

Here are the areas where the problems occur:

• One of the requirements for eligibility to purchase a policy placed through TAIPA is that you have been rejected for insurance coverage by two insurance companies within the previous 60 days. You are required to testify to this by signing the Applicant/Certification Signature on the last page of the TAIPA application. So if your vehicles are currently insured on another policy, you are certifying a false statement on a state document.


• Another issue is that you do not receive the actual SR-22 at the time you purchase the TAIPA policy; you only receive a copy of the application requesting the filing. If you need the SR-22 as a requirement for obtaining an Occupational Driver’s License (ODL), this can cause huge problems. Some judges want to see the actual SR-22 before they will sign the order for an ODL and many attorneys want the SR-22 attached to the ODL forms which are submitted to DPS (they know through experience that getting the ODL issued becomes more difficult when the required documents are submitted piecemeal rather than in a single complete packet). The delays this might cause could result in you finding yourself in the position where you cannot legally drive your vehicle.


• It is also important to realize that you do not have a voluntary relationship with the company to which your policy was assigned. They did not seek you as a customer and are in fact forced by TAIPA to write your policy. It has been my experience that many of these assigned companies are always looking for a reason to cancel these TAIPA policies and remove themselves from the risks. This can launch you into a vicious circle of continuously replacing the SR-22 in order to keep the ODL in force.

To be clear, there are drivers who do not qualify for coverage in the normal insurance marketplace; for these drivers, TAIPA might very well be the best option available. However if you are simply trying to purchase an SR-22 through a secondary market because your current insurance carrier either can’t or won’t provide one… well, TAIPA is probably not the solution for you.

In closing, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this series. My goal was to produce a guide which honestly answers the questions about SR-22s which I have been asked over and over again during the past 35 plus years. My company website, ConceptSR22.com, was developed to address the problems and solutions I have outlined here. If you need assistance with these issues, please visit my website or contact my office.

Thank you – Jay Freeman

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Jay Freeman is the owner of ConceptSR22.com, a website specialized in solving Texas SR-22 problems. If you need assistance in obtaining a Texas SR-22 or have questions not addressed in this series, please contact his office from the website. Thank you for reading this series..

© Jay Freeman – This article may be copied and distributed with original attribution and permission of author.

Accurate Concept Insurance

972-386-4386 ~ 800-967-4386

Serving Texas since 1993