Preparing your defense letter to fight a NYC parking ticket

K.I.S.S. *

I received a request from Holly Smith, a nice lady from Massachusetts, to review the letter she wrote to fight her NYC parking ticket (Earlier in the week, I suggested how she could beat her parking ticket). I recommended a number of changes to her letter.

Attached please find Holly’s letter. What changes would you advise Holly to make? Tomorrow, I’ll publish a new blog post sharing my suggestions to Holly. Maestro, drum-roll please:

NYC Dept of Finance Hearing by Mail Unit
P.O. Box 29021
Brooklyn, NY 11202-­‐9021

RE: NYC parking ticket # 132112943-­‐9.

Plea:
I, Holly Smith , plead Not Guilty to summons, NYC parking ticket# 132112943-­‐9.

Reason for plea:
I plead not guilty due to the fact that the ticket is defective. A required element of the summons, under the law, is missing. The notice of violation fails to state the date of expiration.

My vehicle that has Massachusetts plate # 636CE6, has the year of expiration decal on the rear plate in the upper right-­‐hand corner, as required by MA law. Please see inclosed picture of vehicle with expiration date clearly visible.

Existing NY State Law:

Pursuant to New York Annotated Vehicle and Traffic Laws, Title II, Dept of Motor Vehicles; Commissioner, Article 2-­‐B, Adjudication of Parking Infractions, Section 238, subsection 2, states:

That the notice of violation must contain the “expiration date”.
Section 238, Subsection 2-­‐B, of the above mentioned New York Motor Vehicle Laws states:

“If any information which is required to be inserted on a notice of violation is omitted from the notice of violation, misdescribed, or illegible, the violation shall be dismissed upon application of the person charged with the violation”.

Please see inclosed copy of New York Motor Vehicle Law 238, subsection 2-­‐B.

According to New York State Motor Vehicle Law, there are five identifying elements that MUST be correctly stated on the notice of violation. If any one or more of these identifying elements are incorrectly stated on the notice of violation, than the notice of violation, also known as the parking ticket, MUST be dismissed.

The expiration date is one of those five identifying elements that must be correct. Since the expiration date of the vehicle that recieved NYC parking ticket #132112943-­‐9 is not correctly stated on the ticket, this parking must be dismissed.

Please accept this letter as my application and dismiss NYC parking ticket #132112943-­‐9, due to missing information on the parking ticket.

Thank you,

Holly Smith Inclosed:

NYC parking ticket #234567890

Copy of NY State Motor Vehicle Laws, section 238, subsection 2-­‐B. Copy of Vehicle Registration
Picture of vehicle plate with expiration date shown