Last Updated on June 4, 2018 by Lawrence Berezin
A Texas couple got an NYC parking ticket
What’s so unusual about that?
Their car was never in NYC Parking Ticket Land, never, ever!
What did the Texas couple do?
They received a notice in the mail from the Evil Empire stating they owed a fine for a parking ticket. They requested a hearing to dispute the NYC parking ticket and submitted a bunch of evidence to prove their defense. Can you guess the outcome? Yup, guilty.
So, they appealed the unjust decision. Guess what happened. Yup, it was groundhog day in Parking Ticket Land. The unjust decision was affirmed by the appeals panel.
What’s next?
NBC to the rescue
NBC contacted the Evil Empire, who promised to investigate. The results of the investigation were that a data entry clerk made a mistake. The clerk clicked Texas instead of NYC for the State of registration for the chariot that received this parking ticket.
The Evil Empire refunded the money with a letter of explanation.
Was justice delayed, justice denied? You betcha!
From the simple to the oppressive
[alert type=”info” icon-size=”normal”]Here’s a client success story that should give you fair warning to immediately file a police report when your plate is lost or stolen (always, every time!)[/alert]
I was contacted by a wonderful guy from Maryland, whose plate was issued 94 NYC parking tickets. However, his car was never in NYC.
Herschel originally owned the plate in question but it fell off his car. Unfortunately, he didn’t notice it was gone for some time and never reported the plate missing or stolen to the police.
Subsequently, the missing plate turned up on two different vehicles 94 times and issued parking tickets for a total of >$10,000 in parking fines.Click To Tweet Herschel began receiving letters from the Evil Empire asking for their money and threatening all sorts of bad things if my he didn’t pay-up.Herschel asked me for some help. I fought all 94 tickets.
Some were easy because the judge accepted our evidence as true:
Some were the opposite of easy because the judge wasn’t convinced that Herschel didn’t attach the plate to these other two cars and park illegally in NYC.
We had to hire a private investigator to search the DMV for the “new owner” of Hershel’s Maryland plate (and we found the bad guy). And, Herschel had to personally appear in NYC for some of the tickets.
Here’s one such appeal from a guilty verdict. Fortunately, the appeals panel reversed the original judge and dismissed the nasty ticket.
Click on the link below to read Larry’s successful appeal.
Commentary
Simple, right? Mistakes happen, right? All is well that ends well, right?
Wrong!
Although we beat about 75 tickets on the first try, there were still 19 tickets that we had to go on a costly treasure hunt to find the proof to satisfy each different judge.
Some suggestions:
1. The Evil Empire should publish a list of evidence they will accept to prove the negative that an out-of-state chariot was not in NYC when a bogus ticket was issued
This is one of the best-kept secrets in Parking Ticket Land. How do I prove my car wasn’t in NYC on the date-time the unjust ticket was issued? Proving a negative is difficult enough but why make it a guessing game, especially since you’re asking people from other states to figure out the Evil Empire’s unique system of justice?
Why should it be necessary to request help from the media or our Congressman?
Remember, NYC has jurisdiction to issue a parking ticket because you “consented” to jurisdiction by driving your car in NYC. But, since these cars were never in NYC, the out-of-staters never consented to jurisdiction. It is, in essence, an invalid exercise of jurisdiction, an invalid parking ticket, and grabbing money that does not belong to NYC.
I urge the Evil Empire to compile a list of items they will accept to prove this negative. Otherwise, taking money from the out-of-staters is really highway robbery.
Here are some more things to add to the Evil Empire’s to-do list.
2.The quality of the proofs count
I’ve received many inquiries from people from all over the country asking for help with their NYC parking ticket when their car was never in NYC. Generally, I’m asked to intervene after our friends fought the ticket and lost.
The first thing I usually find is that the proof was directed to show the driver/owner’s whereabouts on the date and time the parking ticket was issued. Bad idea! It’s not about where you were, it’s about where your car was.
- Did you drive your car to work and pay for parking? If so, offer proof of payment with your story
- Were you home all day and your car never left your garage? Tell your story and prepare a witness statement from your spouse to go along with your certified testimony
- Did you go shopping in your state on the date and time your car was supposed to be illegally parked in NYC? If so, tell your story and submit proof of payment
- Think about the evidence you need to submit instead of laughing and assuming the Evil Empire will do the right thing and dismiss the ticket
A 5-Question Parking Ticket Quiz. Are you up to the challenge?
Good to see you on action, Larry. Hope you are well? Thank you again for your work and informative posts.
Alok
Hi, Alok,
Wonderful to hear from you and your kind comment.
All is well. Hope you are healthy and wealthy.
I know you’re a wise man!
Regards,
Larry
10 years ago I junked an old Toyota and returned the NY plates to NYSDMV via the mail. NYSDMV destroyed the plates as per their procedure. I received a receipt (FS-6T) for the plates which I keep in a safe place and will never throw it out.
NYSDMV is supposed to permanently remove the plate number from circulation but when I input my old destroyed plate number into the NYSDMV personalized plate request form the plate shows as available for assignment. Strange.
Hi, NYC driver,
Thanks for sharing your story.
I am totally glad that you keep the receipt in a safe plate.
I’ve heard cautionary tales from clients about their physical plates showing up on other cars after the DMV promised to destroy ’em.
Regards,
Larry
Hi Larry,
I have a similar story where I just received notice from my leasing company that they paid a NYC parking ticket, but I have never been to NY. I disputed the ticket online with a photograph of my vehicle and evidence of a flight I took out of Boston at the date/time of the ticket being issued. The ticket described the vehicle as a black Toyota and put N/S in the registration expiration date field. My vehicle is a silver Scion and MA has a month/year expiration sticker on their plates, and the make and expiration date on the license plate were clearly visible in the photo I sent. I made the mistake of not looking up required elements of the ticket before submitting my dispute. I only pointed out that the color was misdescribed not realizing that color was not a required element and neglected to notice/mention in my statement that the Make was incorrectly listed as a Toyota and the expiration was omitted. Should the judge had looked at/noticed these things in the photo of the original appeal despite me not pointing them out? If I include these pieces of information in the appeal (using the photo which was originally submitted and proves these two required elements were wrong/missing), do you think that my appeal will be successful?
Thanks,
Miffed in Massachusetts
Hi, Miffed,
I totally disagree with the way the Evil Empire processes parking violations against out-of-state plates when the owner claims the car wasn’t in NYC.
NYC has jurisdiction to issue to a ticket to cars that drive on their roadways. But, they don’t have jurisdiction to reach across state lines and grab your money, if you didn’t park in NYC.
Ergo, this defense should be given serious consideration and the Evil Empire should publish a guide that explains the kind of proof necessary to beat the unjust ticket.
Your burden of proof on appeal is to persuade an appeals panel that the original judge made a mistake of law or fact based on the evidence you submitted to the original judge. We are not permitted to offer new evidence. The direct answer is a little complicated. Here are some thoughts:
-The NYC PVB published a guide to fighting NYC parking tickets. Here’s a link. On page 4 the PVB makes a promise to independently review all parking tickets to make sure they were written correctly. I would argue on appeal that the original judge didn’t keep this promise because _________________
_A photograph of your plate by itself doesn’t prove that the month/year sticker was affixed to the plate on the date and time this ticket was issued. I always certify that the photograph is a true and accurate image of how the plate looked when it was parked __________ in MA on the date and time this ticket was issued, as required by MA law. Nothing was changed or added to the plate.
-Did you offer proof of the Make of your car? If so, you should win (registration certificate). If not, did the photograph show the MAKE of your car? If so, you have a good argument.
Good luck to you, Miffed.
Let me know the outcome.
Regards,
Larry
Hi Larry,
I just received notice from the appeals board that they “find no reversible error” despite submitting photo evidence demonstrating the incorrect make and missing expiration date with both the initial dispute and with the appeal with a statement “certify(ing) that the photo of the vehicle is a true and accurate image of how the vehicle and license plate looked when it was parked in MA on the date and time this ticket was issued, as required by MA law”. I am still in awe that it is this difficult for them to admit that it is more likely that a license plate number was mistyped than that I am making all of this up over $55. At this point, it is more about the principle than the money.
I have submitted the story idea for several local news stations’ investigative departments as I don’t seem to have any other recourse. I will update if this pans out.
Thanks,
Miffed
Hi, Miffed,
You have every right to be miffed!
I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for sharing your story.
Regards,
Larry
Hi Larry,
I’m glad I am not alone. Last Friday I received notice from NYC I had a parking ticket for a Jeep with my retired license plate # that occurred December 2018, however I was never there. I live in Florida and the plate they cited was registered in the past for a Honda. About 2 years ago I transferred title to a child and a new plate was issued for that Honda. The old plate of citation has not been used since then and has been sitting in my home files. One piece of my evidence was a copy of the plate which was not enough.
The ticket was hand written and we know handwriting can be difficult to interpret. I could see on the ticket where they could have misinterpreted a letter. They said it was a Florida plate but the car type was a Jeep. That tag was issued for a Honda. For additional evidence I pointed out this discrepancy and provided an old registration identifying the plate # with a Honda but that was not enough.
Now they are giving me 30 days to provide additional evidence which is going to require more investigations, time, and possibly money. The $55 ticket is not worth it but due to the principle I will continue to gather evidence and hopefully it will be accepted.
NYC provides a copy of the ticket online but do you know if there is a photographic record of the plate they ticketed? I’d love to see that because either there is a typo, wrong state as noted in your blog feeds, or the plate # was stolen and I am unaware of that.
This is extremely frustrating!
Hi, N,
Good morning.
You are correct, you are far from alone in fighting this fight.
The Evil Empire is notorious at charging law-abiding citizens with parking violations when neither the citizen or the car have ever been to NYC.
I fought 100 such tickets for one fine gentleman, yup, 100!
Warriors or Cops don’t take photos of the plate.
Your burden of proof on appeal is to persuade an appeals panel that the original judge made a mistake of law or fact based on the evidence you supplied.
You cannot offer new evidence on appeal. You gotta make you appellate arguments based on the evidence that was before the original judge when he made his
original bad decision.
If you’d like to email me a copy of the decision, I’m happy to take a look and see if I can steer you in the right direction.
Good luck, N.
Regards,
Larry
larry@newyorkparkingticket.com
So they gave me 30 days to provide further evidence but did not tell me how to deliver the documents. I had to call the NYC Department of Finance and finally reached a person. She told me I could no longer upload further evidence but had to mail it in, and she gave me an address. I mailed the documents yesterday, return receipt requested, which cost money for a violation I did not commit. I can only hope this will be enough to demonstrate there was an incorrect letter written on the original ticket. You’d think in this technology age NYC would photo each plate they write up for a ticket. I’ll keep you posted when I get a response.
My husband is currently stuck in this exact situation. NYC didn’t accept the proof that his car wasn’t there. Told him it’s going to collection next week if he doesn’t pay. It’s really so unfair and frustrating to be punished for someone else’s error.
JD,
Good afternoon.
I hear you loud and clear, JD!
Likewise, how is a non-resident who has never visited NYC, have any idea what proof is needed to persuade the Evil Empire their car was misidentified?
I strongly suggest Evil Empire describe in detail the necessary proof on their website.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Good luck.
Regards,
Larry
Same thing just happened to me today. Parking violation for street cleaning or something like that. I nor my vehicle have ever been to New York City. I’m doing the dispute a ticket online BS. Below is my statement as to why my violation should be dismissed, not sure if it will help. I also uploaded pics of my tag and vehicle.
I just received this parking violation by mail today and I reside in the state of South Carolina. This vehicle nor myself have been to New York. The citation has the vehicle listed as a passenger vehicle, which it is not. The vehicle is a commercial vehicle only operated in the states of SC & NC by myself with the company name clearly displayed. The citation also list the plate expiration date and plate type as N/S (Not shown). I have attached a clear photo of the plate showing the plate type and exp. date. I have also attached a clear photo of the vehicle showing that it is a company / commercial vehicle and not a passenger vehicle. At the date and time listed on violation I was in my home state of SC in possession of said vehicle.
Hi BM,
Good afternoon.
Man, I despise these “ghost” tickets.
Meanwhile, your reply was excellent, especially since you specifically stated that neither you nor your vehicle was in NYC.
Please let us know the outcome of your good fight, BM.
Good luck.
Regards,
Larry