How My iPhone Got Me Out of a Ticket
Driving back to the office from lunch, I was pulled over by the good 'ole Pasadena Police Department for being stopped in an intersection.
I talked my way out of a moving violation (law school came in handy today) but I couldn't find my insurance card.
So the officer decided to write me a ticket for not having proof of insurance. As he was writing the ticket, I got onto the State Farm website via my iPhone and found my insurance information.
I handed my iPhone to the officer and asked him if the information on the screen was the information he was looking for. He said it was but that I needed to have proof of insurance with me wherever I went.
My next question, "Officer, is there a law that says my proof of insurance has to be on paper?"
"Uhm, yes, unless they changed the law… errrr….uhm…. I tell you what, I'll just give you a warning this time."
"Thank you, officer."
Looks like another good reason to have an iphone or 3G phones. Of course, the officer sensed that he was dealing with an elite attorney.
Ironically, last night I also saw how the county sheriffs over power a guy on the street. (7 patrol cars). Be cooperative and give them the proper responses. They can surely do damages to a citizen who may get upset by the situation. That becomes he said, you said; the Dr. Gate incident. I am scared of the gangsters and I am also sacred of the law enforcers too.
Hey, did you see this post got picked up by State Farm and they mention it on their Twitter page?
http://twitter.com/statefarmins#/StateFarmIns
Also a friend of mine works at one of their offices and says this is making it’s way around internally at the company. They were pretty impressed by you! Way to go!
My brother runs PR for State Farm and he put this on facebook as well so it’s circulating FB/State Farm Management
Scott,
It’s funny that you wrote this when you did, because we’d been working on adding “My Insurance Card” to our “Pocket Agent” iPhone app.
Yesterday, version 1.1 of our app hit the App Store, which adds the digital insurance card as well as some “On the Road” tools to the app, which could already initiate auto claims and find an agent.
As you pointed out, a digital insurance card doesn’t necessarily constitute a legal substitute, but it sure can come in handy. I love resourceful policyholder stories, and hopefully we can help lead to a few more. Take care, and thanks for the blog post!
-Griffin
State Farm Public Affairs