March 6, 2006
Fight the Power (of Your Ticket)
Another interesting thing the Indepedent Budget Office found: If you fight your parking ticket in person, you'll have a better chance of beating it. The IBO says that people who fight parking tickets via the mail are found guilty 32% of the time more than people who fight live. The Post printed the numbers:
According to the study, those who mail in their pleas beat tickets just 40.6 percent of the time, while 38.8 percent are found guilty, 17.8 percent have penalties reduced and 2.8 percent have their base fines reduced.And in-person hearings are more likely to be settled as well.But those appealing in person got out of paying fines 49.4 percent of the time, while 29.4 percent were found guilty, 19.8 percent had penalties reduced and 1.4 percent had base fines reduced.
Have you fought a ticket in court? One man used a Google Map to fight his parking ticket when he went to court to fight it.
|
Advertisement: Gothamist Continues Below!
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
I like that this info is finally quantified, but I don't think its news to most New Yorkers. It basically follows the same line--that most sales people know--that if you simply show up and make a plea personally, you've already got an edge above anyone else. I've always told friends to fight tickets in person if they can wing the time. It always works out better. And even if you loose, the chances of you "loosing" with a lessened fine are greater as well.
Showing up is half the battle 90% of the time.
I beat a 3-ticket pile-on (was going to cost like $120, IRRC) by going in person. It was one of those "invisible crosswalk" violations, and while the judge wasn't buying my complicated argument, I accidentally found a flaw in the tickets as she was reading the details into the tape recorder - literally she reads "left-hand side of street" and I was like, "no, it was the right side." Bam, tickets were invalid. Totally worth it!
Why are they issuing so many wrong tickets to begin with?
Well, the key thing is that if any little bit of info that is inaccurate renders the ticket invalid - even if you really did "deserve" it. That's like 20 little boxes the person has to fill in. (I guess it is faster / more accurate now with the handheld scanners, though.)
I beat another one by mail - double parked in front of my building to unload groceries, came back right away and talked to the suprisingly friendly agent who was writing me a ticket. He said if I had just left my trunk open and my hazards on he wouldn't have ticketed me. Anyway, I look at the thing, and he wrote the wrong street number - on purpose or was he just distracted?
In ten years I think I've gotten ticketed six times, and beat three. Not a bad batting average.
I had a bunch of tickets for parking a van with commercial markings overnight. All thrown out on technicalities. The brochure on ticket requirements are on this page:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/parking/park_tickets_common.shtml