Personal Injury Law

Auto Fraud Database Now Online

By Eddie Farah

The U.S Department of Justice has put an auto database online to uncover fraud. The system will allow the state department of motor vehicles, law enforcement, and consumers to check a car’s title and history. The information will help consumers find out of a vehicle has been in an accident, was used to commit a crime or was stolen. If a car has had an odometer rolled back, this database should be able to let you see its history.

Best of all, law enforcement can track the car from state to state by logging onto the nationwide system.

On January 30^th it became a reality though the information is still incomplete in that it covers less than two-thirds of all U.S. vehicles, reports Public Citizen. In the meantime, insurers and junk yards are playing catch-up trying to add information on cars that may not be actively on the road.

It took a lawsuit by Public citizen and Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, and Consumer Action to get the federal government to implement the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) which has been mandated by Congress 16 years ago.

Consumer groups take a lot of criticism, but frequently they are the ones who get something done when government will not. #

Full post as published by Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer on February 08, 2009 (boomark / email).