The Nova Scotia Insurance Review Board on its consumer guide for auto insurance notes that speeding tickets and other moving violations will increase your risk to the insurance company and will increase your premiums to offset this risk.

The Nova Scotia Insurance Review Board’s role is to protect the public interest and to ensure fairness in the insurance industry. More specifically, an insurance company wishing to increase its auto insurance rates or change its rules must apply to the board for permission and wait for approval. The board also generally oversees the industry so when you need consumer advice and information on the auto insurance industry of Nova Scotia, Canada this is the government agency you would contact.

As a newly licensed Class 5N license holder you are still considered to be an inexperienced driver and thus your risk to an insurance company is already high and your rates normally are as well. By getting a speeding ticket so soon after obtaining your 5N license you are likely showing yourself to be even more of a risk to your Nova Scotia auto insurance company.

We cannot tell you how much your insurance rates may go up since it will be up to the rating system of your current insurance provider. It may be that with a first speeding ticket that your rates will not be raised. Your agent should be able to tell you for certain if this citation will affect your rates and if so by how much. It should not happen though until your insurance provider next pulls your driver abstract.

The Nova Scotia Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) notes that an abstract is a copy of a person’s driving record. It will show any Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) convictions, accidents, as well as departmental postings and processes. A driver abstract may also be referred to as a client record abstract.

A driver abstract contains information from numerous sources concerning an individual’s driving history. Summary Offence Tickets (SOTs) issued under the Nova Scotia Motor Vehicle Act (MVA), as well as convictions under the Criminal Code of Canada, are submitted through the Department of Justice in Nova Scotia. Offences incurred by those holding Nova Scotia driver’s licenses travelling in other provinces are also transmitted and recorded. Any accident resulting in death or involving damages in excess of $1000.00 and / or personal injury are also posted to the driving record.

The NS RMV states that the abstract that an insurance company receives from them includes:

• convictions
• suspensions
• revocations
• traffic accidents
• judgments
• departmental entries

So your insurer will see your conviction for your speeding ticket, unless you are able to fight it and get it dismissed, when they next view your driving abstract and than are likely to raise your rates due to having the speeding ticket. It could be 10 to 20 percent of a rate hike, or more, depending upon your insurance company’s rating systems or you may be lucky and have an insurer that will not raise rates with only one minor violation on your driving record.