Beating NYC parking tickets requires presenting the proper evidence, properly
A Bronx lady was issued a bike lane parking ticket, fought it online and lost. The sad truth was that the bike lane really didn’t exist. The Bronx lady wrote that fact in her defense summary, but didn’t include any proof.
“I didn’t think I had to because there’s no bike lane on Hone Avenue,” she reasoned. Bad reasoning.
It is incumbent on we, the driving public of NYC, to prove our defense. Saying it ain’t so, isn’t enough, as our Bronx lady learned the hard way ($115).
Here are some secrets to beating NYC parking tickets by submitting evidence that compels a parking ticket judge to dismiss your parking ticket.
How to prepare winning exhibits
1. Tell a story. I prepare my evidence before I write our defense certification because the exhibits present a roadmap for the case. For example, we recently assassinated a parking ticket issued to our client while shopping at Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn. The good news was that upon review, the warrior entered a place of occurrence that did not exist, i.e. 153 Court Street, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Our challenge was to prepare a series of exhibits telling a persuasive story compelling a judge to dismiss the parking ticket.
2. Present an overview of the “parking crime scene.” Always tell your story from big to small. By that I mean, show the judge the entire neighborhood first before showing a specific location. Don’t start with a tunnel vision view of the parking space where the parking ticket was issued. Show the judge the “big picture.”
3. Use the same tools a judge uses. Rest assured when you assert that a place of occurrence doesn’t exist, a parking ticket judge will check the NYC Property Map to verify your story. Why not beat the judge to the punchline and prepare an exhibit showing the results of a NYC Property Map search? You want to be the first to tell a story, and present it in the most favorable light for you or your client, right?
4. Use captions to bolster your defense. Learning (and the art of persuasion) requires relentless repetition. Our defense to our client’s parking ticket was that the place of occurrence didn’t exist. The place of occurrence didn’t exist, the place of occurrence didn’t exist, the place of occurrence didn’t exist. Count the number of times we repeated this theme, either verbatim or by suggestion. Remember, if the place of occurrence didn’t exist, you must dismiss (sound familiar?).
5. Make it easy for the judge to dismiss the parking ticket. Place all of your compelling evidence right on the judge’s computer screen.
- Don’t ask him to call you if she has any questions.
- Don’t expect a judge to present your case for you by “searching to find out whether a bike lane exists.” That’s our job
- Don’t show the judge pictures without captions. Tell your story with pictures and words. Pictures with captions have been shown to be significantly more persuasive than pictures without words
Commentary
Plan ahead. Don’t sit down during your one-half hour lunch break at work and throw together your defense to a NYC parking ticket. It’s not going to have a happy ending.
When I fight a parking ticket for our clients, I:
- Clear my desk
- Take out a blank sheet of paper to jot down notes
- Review all my correspondence with our client
- Look at the parking ticket again
- Formulate a strategy. Plan out my evidence “storyboard”
- Use Keynote to prepare exhibits so I can add captions and symbols, etc.
- Save each exhibit as an image
- Reduce the size of each image file (using JPEGmini Lite)
- Prepare our defense certification
- Fight the parking ticket online
- I use Evernote to write the defense certification
- Copy and paste the defense certification in the proper space
- Make sure it’s properly formatted with plenty of white space
- Upload my exhibits
- After uploading all our exhibits, I view each exhibit to make sure it was uploaded properly
- Submit our defense
- Make a screen grab of the evidence upload confirmation…just in case
- Wait about 10 days for the good news…
Not guilty, ticket dismissed.
hi larry thanks for ur wonderful work i just got a pump ticket and i think the registration expiration was not entered but was raining and the ticket is smudged is there any way to view the ticket online to properly prepare my defense thanks!
Hi Ben,
Good morning.
Here’s a link to our “Resources” page.
The second button from the top is the link
you’re looking for.
https://newyorkparkingticket.com/resources/
Good luck fighting the good fight.
Larry
Hello Larry, I got a parking ticket for a violation of general no parking: no parking where parking is prohibited by sign. I didn’t see the sign when I was parking my car on the street because it was dark(8:30pm). I returned to the street next morning, and I saw the no parking sigh was there. Can I defeat the ticket by saying the sky was dark and I didn’t see the no parking sign? Thank you
Hi, Qin,
Good morning.
Great thought, but I’m afraid darkness isn’t a defense.
Good luck.
Regards,
Larry
I parked on a street where the parking signs had been changed 3 days earlier to restrict parking on Saturdays to commercial vehicles. I don’t live in the neighborhood but my fiancee does. The parking sign was further up from my parking spot. Any chance of success in appealing??
Hi, Barbara,
Good afternoon.
There is a law that grants a driver a 5-day grace period from the date a new parking sign is installed. So, if you get a ticket AND can prove the date the new sign was installed, you will win a dismissal of the evil ticket.
The challenge is identifying the date of installation of the new sign. I don’t have a great answer for that part.
I tried a FOIL request but they always took 3-6 months to reply and the information was never correct.
There must be a work order filed someplace, but, I’m afraid I don’t know where.
Any thoughts?
Regards,
Larry
PS…What about a local merchant or a neighbor?
The traffic agent herself told me the signs were changed on Tuesday and I was ticketed on Saturday morning. Is there a provision I can cite with the 5 day rule? She informed me the grace period was 3 day after the sign was changed. But her ticket also had a technical defect with respect to the location. It said opposite 85 E. 16th St., and there’s no such address. There’s a delivery door with the number 85 on it but that refers to the address of the store around the corner on Fifth Avenue. I checked Google street view and my car was parked opposite 2 E. 16th St. Can I go with both arguments?? Thanks for your help
Hi, Barbara,
Good morning.
I would definitely raise both defenses. Here’s the law:
N.Y. New York City Administrative Code 19-175.2 – Notification of Changes in Parking Restrictions
Current as of: 2017 | Check for updates | Other versions
a. Following any permanent change in parking restrictions posted by the department, the department shall post notice, in the affected areas, indicating the effective date of such change. An owner of a motor vehicle parked in the affected areas who receives a notice of a parking violation that occurred within five days of posting of the notice of the parking restriction change shall have an affirmative defense that the vehicle of the owner was parked in compliance with the applicable parking restriction that was in effect prior to such change. Within one business day of making a permanent change in parking restrictions, such change will be reflected on the website containing parking restrictions as required by section 19-175.1 of the code.
Did the Warrior or Cop enter your name on the ticket? If not, I would also raise that defense.
Regards,
Larry
Hi, is it sufficient to ask for a ticket to be thrown out if the car is described as having 4 doors when there are only 2 doors? Thanks. It was for an expired inspection sticker (my fault as I didn’t realize a year had passed, but I thought I would argue it anyway). Also, I received a parking ticket in a spot where I was legally parked. The sign was missing, I didn’t argue it properly and when the verdict came (not dismissed), the new sign was up showing exactly that I was legally parked. I couldn’t do an online appeal so I took more photos and mailed hard copies. I’ve not heard anything yet after almost 2 months. Chris
Hi, Chris,
Good morning.
Kudos for fighting the good fight!
Believe it or not, if the parking ticket is a printed, computer-generated ticket, you win. However, if it is a handwritten ticket, a judge will not dismiss it for getting the number of doors wrong.
If it were me, I would fight both types of tickets because there is a case that states that 2D v. 4D incorrectly described are grounds for dismissal. And that result shouldn’t depend on whether the ticket is handwritten or printed. Here’s a link to a blog post I wrote that explains this defense in more detail.
Good luck.
Regards,
Larry