RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
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Geek on the Hill
About a month ago, I was driving through Manhattan with my two godchildren in the car, trying to get to the Holland Tunnel. I proceeded through an intersection, but was blocked by another driver who cut me off before I got through.
The friendly "Traffic Enforcement Agent" gave me a ticket for Obstructing Traffic. Even the kids protested, but of course, it was to no avail. TEAs definitely do have ticket quotas (unlike real NYC cops), and nothing stops them once they start writing a ticket.
This particular offense is not considered a moving violation in New York City because then the TEAs wouldn't be able to write tickets for it, and also (I suspect) because moving violations have to be adjudicated in a slightly less transparently corrupt court. Non-moving violations carry no points, and are therefore adjudicated in a kangaroo court known as the Parking Violations Bureau.
Most of these tickets are actually handled online or through the mail, as no sane person wants to go take a day off from work to go down to the PVB in person if they don't have to. It's simple economics: The lost income exceeds the fine, so it's usually not worth bothering.
But business is slow these days, anyway; and I had witnesses. So what the heck, I thought. I sent the ticket in with a request for an in-person hearing and requested that my goddaughters either be allowed to submit affidavits or else be subpoenaed as witnesses. Not an unreasonable request, I thought; and it could be a good civics lesson for the kids if it actually came to it.
What I actually suspected, however, was that the PVB would offer a reduced fine in return for a guilty plea, which is what they used to do, mainly to save the costs of an actual hearing. The combined salaries of the ALJ, the bailiff, the clerk, and the rest of the entourage cost way more than the average ticket fine, so in the past they routinely offered to settle with a wink and a nod, sometimes reducing the fines by as much as 50 percent.
Hence my surprise when I was notified by mail today that my hearing had been held in absentia and that I had been found guilty and assessed a fine of the full $115.00. No witnesses, no opportunity to present my defense, no chance to hire one of the dozens of lawyers who loiter around the hearing room, nothing. Nada. Zip.
Interesting approach, don't ya think? They save on the costs of the hearing by simply not inviting the defendant.
Furthermore, I was told over the phone when I called that I had to pay the fine first if I wanted to appeal, using a form that I would have to hunt down on the Internet myself, and that I did not have the right to call any witnesses nor present any evidence that I hadn't presented at the initial hearing -- which was held in my absence and without any notice being provided to me in advance.
Now I admit, everyone who lives in New York City knows that the Parking Violations Bureau is a racket worthy of a RICO indictment. But in the past (the distant past, because the last time I had occasion to fight a NYC parking ticket was many years ago), they at least pretended that it was a real judicial proceeding. Now they've dropped all pretense and have become transparently corrupt.
About the only good thing about the process is that I can call 311 any time, 24/7, for more information or just to whine about the shocking injustice of it all. So I figure I'll call a couple of times every day with idiotic questions until I'm sure that the city has spent more in payroll costs to answer them than the $115.00 they collect from me for theextortion money fine.
What a racket.
-Rich
The friendly "Traffic Enforcement Agent" gave me a ticket for Obstructing Traffic. Even the kids protested, but of course, it was to no avail. TEAs definitely do have ticket quotas (unlike real NYC cops), and nothing stops them once they start writing a ticket.
This particular offense is not considered a moving violation in New York City because then the TEAs wouldn't be able to write tickets for it, and also (I suspect) because moving violations have to be adjudicated in a slightly less transparently corrupt court. Non-moving violations carry no points, and are therefore adjudicated in a kangaroo court known as the Parking Violations Bureau.
Most of these tickets are actually handled online or through the mail, as no sane person wants to go take a day off from work to go down to the PVB in person if they don't have to. It's simple economics: The lost income exceeds the fine, so it's usually not worth bothering.
But business is slow these days, anyway; and I had witnesses. So what the heck, I thought. I sent the ticket in with a request for an in-person hearing and requested that my goddaughters either be allowed to submit affidavits or else be subpoenaed as witnesses. Not an unreasonable request, I thought; and it could be a good civics lesson for the kids if it actually came to it.
What I actually suspected, however, was that the PVB would offer a reduced fine in return for a guilty plea, which is what they used to do, mainly to save the costs of an actual hearing. The combined salaries of the ALJ, the bailiff, the clerk, and the rest of the entourage cost way more than the average ticket fine, so in the past they routinely offered to settle with a wink and a nod, sometimes reducing the fines by as much as 50 percent.
Hence my surprise when I was notified by mail today that my hearing had been held in absentia and that I had been found guilty and assessed a fine of the full $115.00. No witnesses, no opportunity to present my defense, no chance to hire one of the dozens of lawyers who loiter around the hearing room, nothing. Nada. Zip.
Interesting approach, don't ya think? They save on the costs of the hearing by simply not inviting the defendant.
Furthermore, I was told over the phone when I called that I had to pay the fine first if I wanted to appeal, using a form that I would have to hunt down on the Internet myself, and that I did not have the right to call any witnesses nor present any evidence that I hadn't presented at the initial hearing -- which was held in my absence and without any notice being provided to me in advance.
Now I admit, everyone who lives in New York City knows that the Parking Violations Bureau is a racket worthy of a RICO indictment. But in the past (the distant past, because the last time I had occasion to fight a NYC parking ticket was many years ago), they at least pretended that it was a real judicial proceeding. Now they've dropped all pretense and have become transparently corrupt.
About the only good thing about the process is that I can call 311 any time, 24/7, for more information or just to whine about the shocking injustice of it all. So I figure I'll call a couple of times every day with idiotic questions until I'm sure that the city has spent more in payroll costs to answer them than the $115.00 they collect from me for the
What a racket.
-Rich
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