Yeah, they should have just jailed her for driving without a license or insurance.

I dislike the idea of jailing people for not paying their fines, and how some places turn over trivial fines to debt collectors that add insane interest, etc., but seriously, fuck anyone who drives without insurance.

Years ago my friend got in a car accident and had her car (which she spent a long time working and saving up to buy) completely totaled from some asshole without insurance, and even though my friend had full coverage, she found out the hard way that "full coverage" doesn't always include uninsured motorists. So since the person at fault didn't have insurance, and her insurance wouldn't cover it, she was basically out a vehicle. Since the uninsured motorist didn't have any assets and they were living in a debtor friendly state, no attorney would take the case without a decent sized retainer and no promise of being able to collect the judgment. They told her he was essentially judgment proof because while it would be easy enough to win, it would be very hard to collect. She eventually filed it herself in small claims court and got a judgment, which like the lawyer said, was pretty much pointless.

I once had someone without insurance hit me and total my vehicle too. It was an older car so I, like many other people, was stupid enough just to have liability. Being a little more aggressive, I was able to get some money for it (a couple hundred dollars) from him, but obviously not enough to replace the vehicle. At least I didn't lose like $7,000 like my friend did.

Uninsured motorists are a serious liability to us all and the police and courts really don't take it as serious as they should.