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FR-44 costs: the two-state filing whose real price is a coverage limit, not a fee
Only two states — Florida and Virginia — answer a DUI conviction with an FR-44 certificate of financial responsibility, and drivers routinely confuse it with the SR-22 our SR-22 guide prices. The confusion is expensive to get wrong: an SR-22 certifies that you carry your state's ordinary minimum liability limits, while an FR-44 certifies dramatically higher limits fixed by statute. This page prices the FR-44 the only honest way — through the statutory limits themselves — and states plainly the rule this site never breaks: no insurer's premium for those limits is published by any state, so no premium figure, increase or average appears here.
Florida: section 324.023 writes the limits into the statute
Florida Statutes section 324.023 requires a driver convicted of DUI under section 316.193 to prove financial responsibility at elevated limits before and after reinstatement: bodily injury liability of $100,000 because of bodily injury to any one person, $300,000 because of bodily injury to two or more persons in any one crash, and $50,000 because of property damage in any one crash — the 100/300/50 structure. The higher limits must be kept in force for at least three years, and the statute's clock runs from reinstatement: the exemption from the elevated requirement is earned by going three years from the date of reinstatement of the driving privilege without a further DUI or felony traffic conviction. Section 324.023 also preserves a cash alternative that almost no driver uses but every honest cost page should list, because it is the only place in either state's law where the FR-44 obligation is stated as a single dollar amount: instead of a policy, the requirement can be met with a certificate of deposit of at least $350,000. The certificate of financial responsibility itself is filed by the insurer with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, and if the policy is cancelled during the three years the insurer notifies the Department and the licence is exposed to suspension again until a new filing is made — the mechanism our Florida breakdown prices on the licence side.
| FR-44 component | Published amount |
|---|---|
| Florida bodily injury liability, per person (Fla. Stat. § 324.023) | $100,000 |
| Florida bodily injury liability, per crash (§ 324.023) | $300,000 |
| Florida property damage liability, per crash (§ 324.023) | $50,000 |
| Florida alternative to a policy: certificate of deposit (§ 324.023) | At least $350,000 |
| Florida duration (§ 324.023) | At least 3 years at the elevated limits |
| Virginia bodily injury liability, per person (Va. Code §§ 46.2-316, 46.2-472) | $100,000 — double the $50,000 statutory minimum |
| Virginia bodily injury liability, per crash (§§ 46.2-316, 46.2-472) | $200,000 — double the $100,000 statutory minimum |
| Virginia property damage liability, per crash (§§ 46.2-316, 46.2-472) | $50,000 — double the $25,000 statutory minimum |
| Virginia duration (Va. DMV) | 3 years the FR-44 must remain on file |
Virginia: the same certificate built by doubling
Virginia reaches its FR-44 by a different drafting route, and the route matters because it makes the Virginia limits move when the base limits move. Code of Virginia section 46.2-316 requires a person whose licence is revoked for a DUI-type conviction — and for the related offences the section lists, including maiming while intoxicated and driving after forfeiture of licence — to file proof of financial responsibility at double the minimum limits otherwise required. The base minimums live in section 46.2-472, and for policies effective on or after January 1, 2025 they are $50,000 per person, $100,000 per crash and $25,000 for property damage. Doubling those figures, exactly as the statute directs, produces Virginia's current FR-44 structure: 100/200/50. The Virginia DMV's published guidance adds the administrative frame: the FR-44 must be kept on file for three years from the end of the suspension or revocation, the insurer reports a cancellation to the DMV, and a cancellation without a replacement filing suspends the licence again. A driver who was quoted Virginia FR-44 limits of 60/120/40 is looking at the doubling of the pre-2025 minimums — the figures moved when section 46.2-472 moved, which is why this page derives them from the current statute instead of repeating the older pair. Our Virginia breakdown carries the conviction-side figures the FR-44 attaches to.
What an FR-44 actually costs, line by line
Stripped to what published sources support, the FR-44 stack has four lines. First, the coverage itself: three years of liability insurance written at 100/300/50 in Florida or 100/200/50 in Virginia, bought in a market where the state publishes the limits and nothing else — the premium is set by each insurer's filed rates and the driver's record, is not published as a schedule by either state, and is therefore not quoted on this page in any form, including as an average or an increase. Second, the filing: insurers commonly fold the certificate filing into the policy transaction, and neither FLHSMV nor the Virginia DMV publishes a separate state filing fee for the FR-44 form, so no filing fee is quoted either. Third, the non-owner variant: a driver who owns no vehicle still owes the requirement and meets it with a non-owner policy carrying the same statutory limits — the limits do not drop because there is no car. Fourth, the alternative instruments: Florida's $350,000 certificate of deposit above, for the rare driver who self-insures the obligation. Everything else commonly bundled into FR-44 marketing — reinstatement fees, which belong to the licence case and are priced in the state breakdowns, and interlock or programme fees, which belong to the sentence — is a separate component wearing the FR-44's name, and this page declines to merge them.
FR-44 versus SR-22, in one paragraph
An SR-22 certifies minimum limits; an FR-44 certifies elevated limits; both are certificates filed by an insurer, not insurance products in themselves, and neither state that uses the FR-44 uses it for ordinary violations. Florida and Virginia reserve the FR-44 for the alcohol and drug offences and the related revocations their statutes list, which is why a driver moving between states mid-requirement can find the obligation follows the conviction rather than the new address — the home-state filing questions are worked through in our out-of-state DUI guide. If you hold a requirement in either state, the figures to verify with the agency are the limits and the remaining duration, both of which are in the tables above; the figure no agency can give you is the premium, because that was never the state's number to publish.
Sources: Florida Statutes §§ 324.023, 316.193; Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, FR-44 guidance; Code of Virginia §§ 46.2-316, 46.2-472; Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, FR-44 guidance. Last verified: November 2026.
The fine is one line in a longer stack — court costs, program fees, interlock, supervision and reinstatement all bill separately. Price the layers that apply to your case in the calculator.
Open the DUI cost calculatorA note on the numbers this page refuses to print
Search results for FR-44 costs are dominated by premium averages published by insurers and comparison sites. Those figures are marketing estimates built on undisclosed rating assumptions; they are not statutes, not agency schedules and not filed rate pages a reader can check, and they collapse the difference between a 100/300/50 Florida policy and a 100/200/50 Virginia policy into a single national number. This sprint's rule — figures only from published official sources, components only, no insurance premium dollar figures — excludes them entirely. What the official record does support is complete and checkable: the limits, the durations, the deposit alternative and the doubling mechanism, all tabled above with their citations.
Related cost guides: SR-22 costs, Florida DUI penalties breakdown, Virginia DUI penalties breakdown, Licence reinstatement costs, Out-of-state DUI costs.
Sources: Florida Statutes § 324.023; Code of Virginia §§ 46.2-316, 46.2-472; FLHSMV and Virginia DMV FR-44 guidance. Last verified: November 2026. This page is educational information about costs only — not legal advice. Laws and fees change; confirm current figures with your court and your state's driver-licensing agency.