Disputing Unlawful Parking Tickets

Submitted by FAROUTRHUBARB t3_11lv1qs in jerseycity

I wanna preface this by saying that 1.) I live in BeLa 2.) I was definitely, without room for dispute, legally parked overnight in a valid spot

So more or less, I received a parking ticket at 2:30 AM for being in a no parking zone. Again, as I stated above I was definitely, without doubt, not parked in a no parking zone.

There’s a driveway roughly 2 parking spots down and I was near the corner but parked well outside of the markers.

My question is, have you ever gone through the dispute process? I’d ask is it worth it, but because I can’t really afford a $50 ticket for no reason….I think it is. Also, has anyone else in the area experience unlawful ticketing?

To me it’s really gross that the city is handing out unlawful tickets that go undisputed bc the court dispute process is so approachable. Personally, I’m uncomfortable silently paying something and allowing them to go unchecked. Sigh, anyway, my morning is going great.

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STMIHA t1_jbepjxn wrote

Please don’t call it BeLa.

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FinalIntern8888 t1_jbesv5w wrote

Super cringe. Their realtor must’ve said it to them to try to make the area seem gentrified when it decidedly isn’t so.

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jim13101713 t1_jbebx5s wrote

How close were you to the crosswalk? You are technically not allowed to park within 25 feet of a crosswalk under NJ law.

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epic312 t1_jbebt5k wrote

I’ve fought many unlawful tickets and was found not guilty. My most recent one was all done completely online, I submitted my not guilty plea and why and a few months later they emailed me I’m not guilty.

In the past I was on Zoom in front of a judge disputing multiple tickets at once and I wasn’t found not guilty, however, the judge halved the fee I needed to pay.

In my opinion you absolutely should fight the ticket. Get as much evidence and be professional and respectful about the whole ordeal

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STMIHA t1_jbfjgf0 wrote

This is the way. Unfortunately in places like Jersey City you’re always going to have parking enforcement people that don’t look at things the same way. You basically have to get into a habit of grabbing pictures of your spot and sign if you notice that there’s a ticket on your car when you come back to it. That being said there should be an address on the ticket as to where the offense took place I would cross-reference that with where you were parked and if it lines up it really should be cut and dry if anything try and put your car back into a similar if not the exact spot and take a picture of it for reference.

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mickyrow42 t1_jbea0yp wrote

If you can’t afford an unexpected $50 expense I don’t see how taking the time to dispute or the eventual court fees you’ll pay anyway are worth it.

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HappyArtichoke7729 t1_jbf64pq wrote

You should not be paying court fees if you've committed no crime. The court should be paying fees to you, in an ideal world.

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mageaux t1_jbevzt2 wrote

Dispute it out of principle if nothing else. Speaking from recent experience, you will get the runaround and it may take up to a year to get your hearing. The judge will most likely not give you the chance to state your argument (that would require admitting there was a mistake) but they will knock the price down. It may not seem worth the trouble, but they are on a rampage with the bullshit parking tickets. Just paying the ticket without disputing it is letting them get away with it.

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WarrenBuffetsDriver t1_jbefw7v wrote

Good luck. I got a ticket last May that is factually incorrect and I'm still playing the process. I'm just going to pay it at this point because of how silly the whole existing process is.

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HappyArtichoke7729 t1_jbf62dt wrote

Paying it means you condone it, and are okay with getting another one, and another after that, and then another one. Why not? You'll pay it.

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susangjc t1_jbenhh8 wrote

Are they still doing zoom parking court? If so, it's worth fighting as it's about 25 mins of your time. Hopefully you took pics of you parked so you can show the judge. We went to fight one where people had put up no parking signs that morning (vs the two days in advance). Which meant we didn't really have proof (except it was literally directly in front of our house and they ended up putting the sign on our front door so we would have seen it). But still got the ticket knocked down to $15.

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xiadia t1_jbetmyx wrote

A $50 parking ticket is 1/5000 of my annual and I still won’t pay it. Idgaf. I got a parking ticket fall of 2021 that was unlawful and I just got it disputed and cleared in January. I simply told him that I wanted a court date that they scheduled for last January and they ended up having to move it to this January for some reason and I just got on zoom and pled not guilty and they ended up dismissing it. It’s very easy and worth the 5 mins on Zoom.

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