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NY - Got a parking ticket while driving?!? (self.legaladvice)

boyfromdetroit が 投稿

Throwaway just in case.

I use Zipcar in and around my apartment in Brooklyn for a few months now. This Monday, I was sitting at a light in traffic behind another car with my left blinker on. There were 4 or 5 cars behind me too. We were all in a turning lane that has its own red light waiting for it to turn green. We are all sitting there waiting and a traffic cop comes walking up on the median from behind somewhere. He steps out in front of my car with his hand up (like Stop).

Since I dont really want to run this guy over, I wait and traffic starts honking and going around me while hes using some scanner on my windshield and typing on his computer. Like 5 minutes later he hands me a piece of paper and its a $115 ticket for parking next to a fire hydrant! He never even said what he was doing and I tried to explain that how the hell could I be parked in the middle of the goddamn street but he said he already wrote the ticket and I had to tell it to the judge now.

Here is where I was waiting. http://i.imgur.com/WOHC6KU.jpg?1 Is there any way out of this? I barely make enough to pay rent here and $115 is ridiculous for something I didnt even do.

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[–]Napalmenator 315ポイント316ポイント  (10子コメント)

Haha. Sorry to laugh but if it went like you said it is pretty funny.

You can go to court with your picture and tell the judge/prosecutor.

[–]PM_ME_A_SULTRY_LOOK 149ポイント150ポイント  (5子コメント)

I would ask the prosecutor to dismiss before going to court. Hilarious story though.

[–]xjescobedox 35ポイント36ポイント  (3子コメント)

not so funny when even if it gets dropped you still have to pay bullshit dismissal fees at least thats how it is where i leave i can't understand how thats even legal

Edit: Since I'm in legal advice ill ask is this actually legal, because they said if i didnt pay to dismiss them then the judges would be dropped even though i had just gotten out of court and the judge said it was dropped.

[–]elltim92 13ポイント14ポイント  (0子コメント)

Damn, I got re-imbursed $5 for my troubles when I fought a speeding ticket that got thrown out. Your area is just a pain in the ass.

[–]fartsmcgoo1986 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

There's no prosecutor for parking tickets in NYC.

[–]Ramady 67ポイント68ポイント  (3子コメント)

I started laughing when he said that he uses zipcar in his apartment. The actual story was even funnier.

[–]average_shill 24ポイント25ポイント  (2子コメント)

That has to be violating his lease...

[–]Ramady 17ポイント18ポイント  (1子コメント)

Seriously. My landlord would kill me if I tried to drive around the living room.

[–]yesisteb 12ポイント13ポイント  (0子コメント)

if he didnt send certified mail with a receipt then it doesnt matter

[–]_TheConsumer_ 131ポイント132ポイント  (6子コメント)

NYC attorney here.

Does the ticket list an address? Because your photo clearly depicts that you would be parked in traffic.

Does the ticket list an offense?

Does the ticket list whether you were in the car?

Answers to those can help me better answer your question.

[–]boyfromdetroit[S] 86ポイント87ポイント  (5子コメント)

Thank you for your reply. There is a lot of information all over the ticket, but I think "(e)(2) - blocking hydrant" is what you're looking for? Place of occurrence says "alf 91 Tillary Street". The name of operator box is blank. The date/time of offense is correct at 8:01pm on Monday. Does any of this help?

And to everyone else I don't drive in my apartment. Mostly because I don't think its big enough for a zipcar to fit in it.

[–]summerofevidence 42ポイント43ポイント  (4子コメント)

I swear, this is a legitimate question.... what if this was a prank??

I only say this because the guy didn't write his name down. And did he even acknowledge you? It's so over the top.

Follow up on the ticket in a couple days to see this in the system. And also keep your eyes on YouTube prank channels.

[–]pursuitofhappy 27ポイント28ポイント  (1子コメント)

i bet not a prank, i've seen it happen all the time. meter maid walking past intersection tags a car with his scanner, doesnt even print ticket out and that shit appeared in the system. seen another scanned a double parked car with occupant in vehicle, etc.

to OP, you can fight this easily, just do it over the mail with the proof you gave in this topic, or you can walk-in in person and talk to a judge about the ticket at 210 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn.

[–]TheIdesOfLurch 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

It's some weird, imperious stuff sometimes. I got a ticket in NYC once for parking in a bus stop. Except I was in front of a hotel and the valet was taking my bags out of the trunk. That was a confusing one.

[–]elltim92 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

If this were a prank in Philadelphia, the PPA would probably still hit you up for the money.

[–]Built-In 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Operator means operator of the vehicle.

[–]iemitremmusi 61ポイント62ポイント  (0子コメント)

Does you ticket have the option to mail in a not guilty plea or dispute the ticket?

I would absolutely dispute it.

[–]wookiee42 21ポイント22ポイント  (1子コメント)

So is this Zipcar's ticket and Zipcar will turn around and fine OP?

If so, maybe the officer was trying to take advantage of the situation, hoping nobody will fight it or care.

[–]unagirap 20ポイント21ポイント  (0子コメント)

Actually thats a good point that many here are missing. Zipcar will be notified about the ticket, and generally they will just automatically pay it, billing OP's credit card for the ticket and adding additional fees for the 'convenience'. I'm not sure OP can really challenge this parking ticket since it's technically on Zipcar's vehicle here and not something that applies to OP's driving record.

[–]galaxytornado 52ポイント53ポイント  (12子コメント)

I really hope you get out of this. I like how a lot of the top comments on this thread are comfortable with laughing at this. Maybe I'm bitter but my dad's experience with these types of tickets have not gone well. Just a few months ago, he was given a ticket for not wearing a seat belt whilst wearing it the entire time. The cop told him to tell it to the judge and justified it by saying he needed to fill his quota for the month. Judge says we can't prove he wasn't wearing it. Boom. 150+ dollar fine that had to be payed. And it's not the first time he'd been given a ticket like this. I'm sorry if I sound disgruntled, but my point is, what happened to op isn't funny.

[–]Taz-the-spaz 35ポイント36ポイント  (0子コメント)

Whatever happened until innocent until proven guilty? I just finished fighting a ticket from May for texting while driving. I was able to prove that my phone was in the backseat and I hadn't had anything incoming or outgoing for several hours, but was basically told the same thing: You can't prove the officer is lying.

Fucking quotas.

[–]endtables 22ポイント23ポイント  (4子コメント)

Dashcam, dashcam, dashcam. Everyone in the US needs one. There are good models with dual front-rear facing cameras that have decent quality for under $100.

Shut down the corruption with hard evidence.

[–]NoShftShck16 7ポイント8ポイント  (2子コメント)

Please link me. Going through a bullshit insurance claim as we speak.

[–]Shinhan 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

First google result is $200 for 2 cameras that you can rotate however you want.

[–]hungryhungryhorus 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

This is what I got.

The price has dropped about 40% since I got it :P The quality is good enough to capture what's happening, but probably not good enough to catch a license plate on anything that isn't directly in front of you.

The critical review is right though, the instruction manual is total crap and I had to figure it out through a bit of trial an error.

[–]chiagod 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

Other than a dashcam, the OP should check his phone's location history. If it's enabled it'll be additional proof that he was in traffic the whole time.

[–]OneRedSent 7ポイント8ポイント  (2子コメント)

This is where a dashcam or voice recorder would come in handy. Play it in court.

"Officer, can you see that I am in fact wearing my seatbelt?"

"Yes, but I need to meet my quota."

Judge: Case dismissed!

[–]j__h 0ポイント1ポイント  (1子コメント)

Officers job dismissed as well.

[–]fdjsakl 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

Crap like this is why I have a radar detector in hopes to avoid interactions with cops as much as possible.

[–]Caffine1 -1ポイント0ポイント  (0子コメント)

Not yet a lawyer, not legal advice, but information.

You should appeal

[–]mask2697 99ポイント100ポイント  (0子コメント)

Fucking ticket quotas man.

[–]panic_bread 15ポイント16ポイント  (3子コメント)

You'll have to wait for fucking hours to dispute this in court. Call the DA as soon as possible and let them know what's up.

[–]CenturyLinkCSR319 0ポイント1ポイント  (2子コメント)

The ticket is Zipcars not the OPs since Zipcar plates the vehicle. OP can't disupute another person's ticket. Zipcar will pay the fine and pass this + fee on to OP. Not much you can do.

[–]rowing_owen 2ポイント3ポイント  (1子コメント)

Do you think the meter maid knew this and gave OP a BS ticket to fill the quota knowing that he wouldn't be able to fight it?

[–]CenturyLinkCSR319 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

Very likely since Zipcars have a huge Zipcar logo on the doors. I know that in my town the automated speed cameras always go after rental cars because the rental companies always pay where as regular citations don't have nearly that high of a percentage. The rental car companies just charge credit card of whoever had the car when the ticket was issued and tack on a huge "research" fee... and there ain't shit you can do about it. No way to fight the ticket since it's not your ticket.

[–]Wilawah 12ポイント13ポイント  (6子コメント)

There's an APP for that

http://nypost.com/2015/06/14/this-app-will-fight-your-parking-ticket-so-you-dont-have-to/

[–]Caffine1 2ポイント3ポイント  (3子コメント)

Are they offering legal representation? That seems like an attorney client relationship.

[–]Wilawah 3ポイント4ポイント  (2子コメント)

NYC has a special "court" for parking tickets; as you can imagine, the volume is immense.

For a long time, companies such as UPS, AT&T, etc who have many vehicles in New York hired guys whose only business was disputing tickets. They would get a $10k monthly bill reduced by half. Their methods were mysterious. I thought they had a "special relationship" of some sort with the court personnel.

[–]Caffine1 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

I followed around a traffic court attorney once before law school in Staten Island. I've seen things.

[–]rebthor 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

It's run by ALJs. As you can imagine, it's quite "fair." Although you technically can appeal the judgement to the NY Court of Appeals. Or it might be the NYS Supreme Court, I forget which.

[–]Windows_Update 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

There really is an app for everything.

[–]TheImmortalLS 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Great idea. Although they collect half of your original fee to pay, making the city pay for all the bogus tickets is going to change legislation.

[–]epic31 13ポイント14ポイント  (1子コメント)

the NY Post/Daily news would love this

[–]RocheCoach 24ポイント25ポイント  (0子コメント)

Dispute the ticket, and complain to the parking officer's supervisor.

[–]shitmyfriendsaid 42ポイント43ポイント  (10子コメント)

I got a parking ticket for "parking" in the middle of an intersection. I only "parked" there because the car in front of me was stopped by the cop who wrote me the ticket. It is a scam. What are you going to do? Take a day off to fight a parking ticket? I went online to plea not guilty then waited and paid for the reduced fine. It was in NYC, BTW.

[–]SilverbackRibs 29ポイント30ポイント  (0子コメント)

DONT BLOCK THE BOX!!!

[–]Indenturedsavant 8ポイント9ポイント  (4子コメント)

You're not supposed to stop. Just keep going next time and the cop will get out of your way, it's how the flow of traffic works in NYC.

[–]shitmyfriendsaid 7ポイント8ポイント  (3子コメント)

For traffic controller, you don't stop. For cops standing 5 feet from his light flashing patrol car wanting to fill his monthly quotas in one afternoon, you better stop and put on a smile or you're getting a moving violation instead of parking ticket.

[–]Caffine1 4ポイント5ポイント  (1子コメント)

That doesn't seem right.

[–]masterxc 2ポイント3ポイント  (0子コメント)

smile

Right in the wallet just the way I like it, Officer.

[–]whydoncha 41ポイント42ポイント  (1子コメント)

That's not a scam, the cop could have written a blocking the intersection ticket which is worse. And you should know better than to be caught out there. Unless you're from out of town... then welcome to new york, don't get caught in the intersection.

[–]shitmyfriendsaid 18ポイント19ポイント  (0子コメント)

I know it is a scam because the car behind me and the car behind him got the same ticket. I had two options, bump the car in front of me out of the way and risk hitting the gun bearing trigger happy NYC cop or stop and get a ticket. Flushing Main street. Go check it out sometimes. They used run this scam every few weeks.

[–]j0hnnyengl1sh -1ポイント0ポイント  (1子コメント)

Presumably the local driving rules say that you shouldn't enter the intersection unless you clearly have enough space on the other side to clear it. I know that where I am (Canada) and where I'm originally from (UK) you can't legally stop in an intersection unless you're waiting to turn left (or right in the UK).

If the intersection was painted with cross hatches then you definitely can't stop there. It isn't a scam, it's to stop you still being there when the lights change and stopping traffic crossing.

[–]shitmyfriendsaid 26ポイント27ポイント  (0子コメント)

Why does everyone assume I'm a fucking idiot and don't know how to drive? The scam goes like this: red light turns green. Everyone sees the other side is clear and start moving. Cop jumps out and stop the first car on the right lane just before it exists the box. Light turns red, cop let the first go and ticket everyone behind. Clear now?

[–]_gst_ 6ポイント7ポイント  (0子コメント)

Do you use Android and do you have the Google Maps timeline feature enabled (i think it's enabled by default)? If yes Google Maps tracks your location history - just open maps and click on "your timeline". As this history is stored on the server side and thus can't be changed retroactively it might be sufficient to prove that you've been driving.

As an alternative I think that some Zipcars do have GPS units that track the cars location. But I'm not sure if and how long Zipcar stores this information and if they provide it to users.

[–]Pizza-and-Pickles 4ポイント5ポイント  (0子コメント)

This is why you have a dash cam installed in your car.

Because someone will try to screw you up the ass and you will need proof.

[–]Stay100 3ポイント4ポイント  (0子コメント)

This is fucked

[–]fartsmcgoo1986 5ポイント6ポイント  (1子コメント)

Good news is that the parking tickets in NYC are done using administrative law judges. They are not real judges and don't rely on reasonable doubt so it's a lot easier to contest these tickets.

[–]StrawberryJinx 5ポイント6ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yup. Just be polite and show the photos, the administrative judge is likely to be perfectly reasonable and dismiss the ticket.

[–]tripshed 1ポイント2ポイント  (0子コメント)

NYC tickets have a dispute option online. Do that with the reason, hopefully the judge will throw it out.

[–]nancy_ballosky 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

No advice but man that beats my "i was in the car with the engine on talking to the ticket lady" parking ticket story. Man that sucks.

[–]vergie19 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

The ticket should list the name of the officer. I would file a complaint against the officer as well.

[–]TheShadowCat 0ポイント1ポイント  (0子コメント)

Do Zipcars have GPS tracking? If they do, that might help you out a lot in court.

I would contact Zipcar and find out.