city of New York Parking Ticket Adjudication Bureau accused of altering and amending tickets which were improperly written

Our law office of attorneys defends motorists charged anywhere in New York State with speeding, driving without insurance, driving while having a suspended license, cell phone violation, moving violations, or is charged with an auto crime. While parking tickets do not cause points and insurance increases like moving violations do, they can nonetheless be an economic nuisance, expensive, and can even trigger vehicle registration suspensions or cause your vehicle to be towed or impounded. This is why having a fair and impartial method of parking ticket adjudication is so important.

An October 19, 2019 article in the New York Post alleges dishonesty in New York City’s parking ticket adjudication system. The system, not really a court at all but a tribunal of the NYC Finance Department, was accused in the article of changing “hundreds of thousands” of parking tickets online to fix flawed summonses before they are dismissed by the court. Tickets that are incomplete or incorrectly filled out, such as inaccuracies in documenting the location, describing the vehicle, or indicating the name of the issuing officer, are routine mistakes that can lead to dismissal.

Many vehicle owners do not realize that the information on the ticket left on the windshield does not match the online version of the ticket uploaded to the city’s Department of Finance website. Consequently, they do not fight the ticket and simply pay the fine, adding millions to the city coffers.

According to the article “watchdog Glen Bolofsky, president of ParkingTicket.com…claims his auditors found some 220,000 “altered” tickets dating back to 2014.” Bolofsky related that having multiple versions of the ticket is illegal, and that inasmuch as a motorist only has one shot at a defense, it is only fair that the city gets one shot of writing the ticket. Bolofsky claims that “[b]y altering the tickets, they are getting an unfair advantage.”

The article also interviewed Richard Brienza, who has a fleet of delivery vans and trucks. He claimed that one of his vans was ticketed for “no standing,” but that the ticket did not include the time or date of the offense. However, when he looked up the ticket online on the city website, the ticket read that the violation occurred on May 24 at 9:50 a.m.

Daniel McNally’s wife Bridget was interviewed by the Post regarding a parking ticket on a truck her husband’s plumbing company received. She told the Post that one of his trucks received a ticket for double parking, but that the vehicle make and officer’s name was left blank. However, low and behold, when he looked up the ticket on the city web site weeks later that information was contained on their version of the ticket.

In the article, Bolofsky claims that he is poised to sue the city over the changed tickets, and estimates that the city has made $21 million off drivers by avoiding the dismissal of 220,000 flawed parking tickets. Worse yet, most of those drivers will never know they could have won their case in court, and of course the NYC finance parking ticket tribunal is not going to tell them that their ticket is defective.

Craig Cine, a NYC department of finance spokesman, denied any allegations of wrongdoing by the city: “The city does not illegally alter parking tickets it gets from agents in the field,” said Cine. Cine further related that the city issued over 11 million parking tickets last year, and that there is no evidence that the issue of altered tickets is widespread. According to Cine “We take each individual case seriously and New Yorkers can always appeal tickets at DOF if there is any missing information on their ticket.”

If you have a NYC parking ticket you have the right to fight it. Although our office does not fight NYC parking tickets, we can refer you to lawyers whose sole practice is specializing in NYC parking tickets and can fight the case for you. If you have been given a NYC parking ticket e-mail or call today and we will be happy to put you in touch with our colleagues who specialize in New York City parking ticket defense.