VA DMV-Suspended License-Auto Insurance

In September 09 we bought out our lease on our vehicle. We went to DMV to register and pay sales tax, etc. All is good. In December 09 DMV sends a request for insurance verification on this same vehicle. This request gets buried with the “junk mail” and rediscovered this weekend. I contact DMV immediately and learned that my husband and I have been driving on a suspended license for 2+ months. I gave the DMV assoc our insurance info over the phone and she advised we needed to go to DMV w/ proper ID to be reinstated and pay $85/ea. We didn’t understand why our insurance was being questioned as we have never had a lapse in insurance coverage. DMV did not asked for proof of insurance when we registered the vehicle (which we could have easily provided right then) and our insurance on the vehicle never changed from when it was leased to when we purchased it. The DMV assoc told us when they put the VIN # of our vehicle in to their electronic system nothing came back and they deemed us as having no insurance. Clearly this is an error b/c we have never had a lapse in insurance. I asked if this could be appealed and she said no it is already on our record and will remain for 5-7 years. She said the issue was caused by our insurance company. We immediately called our insurance company and they could not understand why this happened. They can show proof of coverage from when the vehicle was leased in 04 to present day with no lapse.

I’m not sure how this happened – if someone at DMV keyed the incorrect VIN # or there was a glitch in the electronic system or what but the fact of the matter is we have always had insurance coverage and we can prove this. I strongly feel there should have been other efforts made to contact us (electronic mail, phone call, certified mail, etc) since this is a serious issue that effected our driving privileges. Because we handle all of our bills and correspondence electronically it is not uncommon for regular mail to be looked over or delivered to the wrong house entirely (happens all the time) unless we are expecting something. Our main concern now is our jobs. My husbands’ job requires his DMV record to be clean. We are not sure how this will affect him and we want to find out if there is any recourse to appeal this mistake.

Your help is greatly appreciated.