Are you Committing These Common NYC Parking Ticket Blunders?

Last Updated on December 23, 2017 by Lawrence Berezin

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot fighting an NYC parking ticket

I enjoy making an important point with a great, short, story. NYC parking ticket judges love a story. We all do. The big but is, make sure your story makes a winning point. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot.

I am engaged in a conversation with an intelligent, fine, gentleman on Larry’s Blog. He filed a defense to his parking crime and told the following story in his defense.

The place of occurrence was in front of my In-laws home. I was there to drive my mother-in-law to an appointment. She uses a walker following hip replacement surgery. I backed my vehicle out of their driveway (which is on an incline) and parked with the doors perpendicular to the sidewalk to allow her easy access to the vehicle. I then went inside the house, helped her on with her coat, and walked her to the car. I was away from the vehicle for approximately 4 minutes. The pathway was not fully blocked. Anyone could have walked around the front or the rear of my vehicle and remained on the sidewalk without having to go into the street. This is a sleepy little side street in Flushing with little to no pedestrian traffic. I believe the complainant acted unreasonably in this instance, considering all the above, and that I had left my hazard lights flashing.

Is this a winning story, or a bullet in the foot? Why?

Don’t Shoot first, ask questions later

My former partner is an excellent attorney, who never let a rule of law get in the way of a good argument. He’d read a brief prepared by the other party, and fire back immediately with a logical and passionate reply. The big but was, he never bothered to research the rule of law. He simply based his argument on what he believed the law should be. Bad idea.

In the emotional, wacky, world of NYC parking tickets, too many of our wonderful, card-carrying members of the NYC driving community have a knee-jerk reaction to a parking ticket by submitting a logical, impassioned plea to a parking ticket judge. Bad idea.

Research the law first! Knowledge is power. If a lawful defense to a no standing parking crime is you were stopped temporarily (2 minutes or less) to drop-off a passenger, why share the fact with the Evil Empire that you only stopped for 5 minutes to walk your 101-year-old Aunt Tillie to her apartment. But, you left the emergency blinkers on to give a warrior a heads up you’ll only be gone for a short time. You are a wonderful nephew who just lost his case.

Research and understand the parking rule and the legal defense to the rule.

Then, write a winning story.

It was a freezing cold day in February. My Aunt Tillie was a passenger in my car because I picked her up from her doctor’s appointment and was taking her home. When we arrived at my Aunt Tillie’s home, I pulled into a vacant parking space next to the curb (lucky). Aunt Tillie said goodbye, and got out of the car. Aunt Tillie is a lifetime resident of Brooklyn, and knows not to linger. This took no more than 1-2 minutes.

I had my wheel pointed in the direction of the traffic lane, my blinker was on, and I was about to drive off when a TEA (parking ticket warrior) stuck  a parking ticket under my windshield wiper, and walked away.

I know this is a winning story because I won with it.

Commentary

Key take aways:

• Tell a winning story
• You absolutely, positively will increase your chances of beating a NYC parking ticket by knowing the rule of law and the lawful defense to the rule BEFORE submitting your defense
• Don’t hand a parking ticket judge the bullets for his gun. Bad idea

Do you have any winning parking ticket stories to share with us? Please do. You need a village to beat a parking ticket.