I have, in the past, went to court , explained something similar and I just paid the ticket. The Municipal Court is pretty fair.

Good Luck

I received a Failure to Appear notice for a parking ticket I never knew I had (the ticket must have either fallen off or been taken off my car).

Now JCPA wants $52 instead of $42. It's not really a big deal, but does anyone have any experience with this?

Obviously I can't fight the ticket itself because I have no idea what might or might not have happened that day a month ago. But can I fight the $10 surcharge since I never even knew I had the ticket? I've had 2 or 3 before, and I've always paid them right away.

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PS You also need to point out to JCPA were they went wrong with the ticket BEFORE going to Court.
You have to give them the option to void the ticket themselves - The Judge loved that I did that - Total disclosure and sharing of information !

hmm. I received a ticket several years back. It was for parking on the wrong side of the street, but I was clearly on the right side, which i was eventually able to prove. But i did not get a ticket on my car or a notice and by the time I figured it out, my license was suspended. I was able to beat the ticket, but I had to pay something like $175 to get my license reinstated. They said it was my fault for not responding to the ticket in time, even though the ticket was wrong and was not left on my car.

Can you please post a copy of your letter (maybe in PDF format) here, so we can all start using it as a template. Once the letters start pouring in JCPA will have to change their mobster practices. Obviously do not include any of your personal info in the letter.

Thanks in advance!

Remember, our only strength is in our numbers!

A few years back, the City of Newark was accused of writing tickets for cars registered to places outside of the city even if the cars were legally parked or if they were never even in Newark. The idea was that suburbanites wouldn't want to come to Newark and fight the tickets, and they would just end up paying it because the city was able to suspend licenses of drivers for non-payment. That is the power of parking authorities.

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I received a parking ticket once that must have fallen off the car or something because I never received it. I also never received a failure to pay notice-- instead, one day I just came home to a letter from JC that said as of now, my license had been suspended for non payment of ticket.

I went to court, the judge immediately threw it out since I had never even received a second notice. He provided a letter in case I was pulled over before the records had been updated.

Three days later, I received my failure to pay notice.

I'm not sure what the standard practice is for non payment since my experience was non-standard-- three missed notices? failure to appears? etc., but I'm not sure standard practice applies to Jersey City.

First off, Traffic court is at 5pm. If you go to fight it and have your permit with you they will most likely throw the ticket out but your going to have to pay a court fee of up to $33. Sometimes they reduce that slightly but bottom line is it's gonna cost you something besides your time.

You will be truly entertained by other peoples cases that's for sure.
I sat in recently and had to contain myself from laughing out loud with what people do & say.

Good luck.

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No one.

@croft : that really sucks! I'm sorry to hear it.

@fat-ass-bike : Thanks for the advice. Had no idea this was a possibility.

and, @81905 & @CaptainQuality & @coronalime: you're right?

It doesn't make any sense to lose a day's pay to fight a $42 ticket; and I suspect I'm not the only one this has happened to, AND that they are actually counting on people not being able to go to court, or not think it's worth it, and just paying it to be done with it. Which is really the part that makes me livid.

Who is the JCPA accountable to?

I bet they're trying to make up for lost revenue during those storms this winter.

I've seen more tickets on legally and semi questionably parked cars in the past few months than ever before.

I got a ticket with an undocumented offense, and when I went to pay it online, it said I had to show up to court. I was also told it was $42 at first, but I couldn't pay it off. To top if off, when I went down to the court on Summit, the woman in the booth could not tell me what the offense was. Something stinks.

I've already missed two court dates. Whats the worst that could happen if I dont show up again?

I makes no sense whatsoever to fight a $42 ticket even if you are in the right. If you have zero to do and want to see and hear some on JC finest citizenry then go for it.

Just for the record, I wrote to JCPA about a wrongfully issued ticket and would challenge it in Court. I told JCPA that I would be seeking costs at $50.35 an hour for my time lost from work - important to let JCPA that you intend to seek costs (if successful) BEFORE going to Court.
I also asked for all the notes made by the JCPA Officer at the time of the ticket before we went to Court - There were errors made.
To cut a long story short - I won and they paid my costs.

I got a bunch of them for "prohibited parking" when there were no signs on my part of the street. Too bad I too work a job that I am not allowed to call out of. Instead I just bit my tongue, paid off the tickets, and had to find a rental spot nearby for 1/2 of what I would pay monthly in parking tickets alone.

I would like somebody to start a class action lawsuit to force Jersey City to permit the dispute of tickets via the web or mail.

It is de facto punishment when you have to take a day off work to fight an obviously wrong ticket.

I got a ticket last week for not having a parking permit. Except, I have one, and have had one for years. Clearly visible.

After a few phone calls to the JCPA, I've been told I'll have to fight it in court.

So, I'd have to take a day off from work and lose a day's pay (I don't get paid, if I don't go in) to fight a $42 ticket.

Is it really possible that in the year 2011 they can't just check a database where plate numbers are linked to permit numbers, and see I have one? Is going to court really the *only* way to resolve this?