Arnold Diaz Fights the NYC Department of Finance

Last Updated on October 30, 2017 by Lawrence Berezin

Arnold Diaz takes on the Evil Empire over an unjust NYC parking ticket

Arnold Diaz is a great friend of the NYC driving community. Once again Mr. Diaz fights the bad behavior of rogue judges and the Evil Empire. Here’s the story about a member of the driving public whose car was issued a parking ticket for an expired registration. The big but was… the car was damaged in a motor vehicle accident a year before, and:

• Was declared a total loss
• She surrendered her plates to the DMV
• The insurance carrier paid our fair lady for the total loss
• The insurance company took possession of the car
• Sold the car at auction

Commentary

In my humble opinion, this happens because the Evil Empire exerted pressure on parking ticket judges to read cases and issue opinions too fast for comfort. Sometimes, a judge will read a couple of sentences in a defense letter and prematurely conclude that you’re raising one defense when you meant to raise a different defense. So, the judge finds you guilty when you’re not.

The next step is to appeal, but the success rate on appeals is about 13%. And, many appeals are affirmed without issuing an opinion. The appeal simply says…you lose.

The next step is to file an Article 78 petition, which is an application to the NY Supreme Court to hear your case. The big but is that the filing fee is $305. And, the application is not easy for a non-lawyer to complete properly.

How do we fix it?

• Less pressure on judges to issue too many opinions in too short a time

• Less pressure on judges to find you guilty

• When you fight a parking ticket, tell your story but eliminate unnecessary words.

• The fact that our fair lady’s injured car was towed to a car fixer-upper, is not relevant to the defense. Why waste the little time you have to get the judge’s attention on irrelevant words?

• Every parking violation has a specific defense that must be presented properly to win. Tell your story with facts that are pertinent to your defense

• I start my defense letters by specifically stating the defenses I’m raising. This provides the judge with the context of my story (defense)

• The PVB should not be supervised by the Evil Empire. The Evil Empire’s mission is to create revenue. The parking ticket judge’s mission should be justice!

Larry Berezin….Good day (I always wanted to say that in honor of one of the all-time greatest news reporters…Guess who?

[Larry’s note: A special shout out to my great friend Stuart for giving me a heads-up about this story…Thanks, Stuart!).

Speaking of matching parking crimes with the proper defenses, you may wish to download the PVB Adjudication Unit’s guide to fighting parking tickets. it’s free and very valuable.