It is official. Next Tuesday, parking ticket fines will increase to $105.00 in New York City for most parking ticket summonses. An official New York City announcement was made this week.
Not since the early 1990’s has there been a parking ticket increase and never of this magnitude according to Glen Bolofsky, CPA, President of parkingticket.com.
"This price increase is huge. It will basically double the price of parking tickets in Manhattan which currently cap out at $55.00. However, this increase is not limited to Manhattan. The fines will be increased in every borough for many of the most commonly issued parking tickets including: fire hydrants, bus stops, No Stopping, No Standing and Double Parking regulations. The cost of a vehicle tow will increase as well."
The message from the City is clear: park legally. "Gone are the days where you could contest a ticket by pleading Guilty with an Explanation" says Bolofsky. "You must know the rules better in order to get a ticket dismissed. Making it even more difficult is that Saturday morning and evening court hours were eliminated long ago."
At $105.00 each, Bolofsky advises that it’s worth taking the time to contest a ticket. "At parkingticket.com we make it easy for our customers to contest parking tickets legally, conveniently and effectively." Parkingticket.com employs retired Parking Violation Bureau Judges, Police Officers and Traffic Agents to help find parking ticket defects and other grounds for dismissals.
All a person has to do is to enter information from their parking ticket onto a template that looks just like their ticket. The site also asks the user to enter vehicle registration information and answer specific questions about how they received the ticket.
After processing the ticket, parkingticket.com emails their customer a customized parking ticket dismissal letter that details the reason(s) why the ticket should be dismissed. If the ticket is dismissed or reduced, the site keeps half the savings. If you are found guilty the site keeps only a $5.00 processing fee.
At no additional cost, parkingticket.com will request an official copy of a summons in the event the original copy was either mutilated or never attached to the car’s windshield. Adding to public convenience the service is around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Going on-line to resolve a parking summons is fast, simple and exact:
- Customer logs onto parkingticket.com
- Enters information from parking ticket onto a look-a-like ticket on computer screen display
- Enters data from vehicle registration certificate
- From screen, Customer answers questions on how the ticket was issued
- Information is transferred to parkingticket.com computer servers
- Within days the client will receive instructions; which include either a confidential, customized dismissal letter, a request for an official copy of the original summons or a notification to pay the fine expeditiously in order to avoid penalties.
Mark Conrad, a former New York City Parking Violations Judge who helped design the web site said that it will make it easier for people to respond more expeditiously and to gain dismissals. "It will even facilitate the City’s swifter adjudication of parking tickets" he said, by "providing a standardized format to allow a more efficient review of each contested summons."
If a summons that led to a car being towed away is contested and won, he pointed out, not only is the summons fine eliminated, but the accompanying towing charge is killed as well.
Retired New York City Police Officer Frank Signoreil and Lt. Richard Mercer, a retired Traffic Agent Supervisor, part of the team of parkingticket.com consultants, pointed out that a system like this would do a lot to increase the public’s awareness that a summons can be easily and legally disputed without giving the issuing Officer a hard time. "This will make it easier for the guys in the field" stated Officer Signoreil, and besides, "once I write the ticket, it’s out of my hands."
Parkingticket.com handles parking tickets in New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. It is a division of Parking Survival Experts.
