My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: New Jersey
There is a street somewhat near our local train where cars often stop to drop off or pick up their commuting spouses. There are no driveways on this section of this street, only side fences on one side and side of a commercial property on the other. I've drawn up a rectangle marking the section of street below:
My wife commutes and, when she's running late, I drop her off / pick her up here. Driving into the station pick-up/drop-off lot during commuting hours from this side of town takes 30-60 minutes (yes, really!), so it's no wonder that many people tend to use this section of street.
This section of street used to be marked as 'no parking 1-1.30PM', no doubt in order to prevent commuters from leaving their cars there for the entire work-day. But that did not prevent us from stopping to pick-up/discharge passengers. This was going on for a few years, without incident.
However, about 5 months ago, the township suddenly changed the signs to say 'no parking 6AM-9PM', and they began ticketing drivers who stopped to pick-up passengers. Initially, they ticketed only the drivers who were stopped waiting for passengers to arrive (to be picked up), which made sense to me, because that could be considered parking. They also handed out the tickets in person to the driver. Eventually, after perhaps thousands of such tickets, cars stopped waiting there, and would only arrive after their passengers were already there. So no one was really parking there any more. There were therefore no more than 2-3 cars on the street at any given time, for the few seconds that it takes a passenger to get in/out.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether the township did not want to part with this new revenue stream, but they switched tactics. They now have 2 unmarked cars quietly noting down the plates of the cars stopping to actively pick-up/discharge passengers, though that barely takes a few seconds. The street signs still say 'no parking 6AM-9PM'. Inevitably, the parking tickets arrive in the mail 1-2 weeks later. The citation says 'Illegal parking', even though you weren't parked.
Hence my questions:
1. Is it lawful to issue 'illegal parking' tickets to cars that stop for the express purpose of picking up or discharging a passenger? If not, how would one go about fighting such a ticket? Would a dash cam feed help?
2. My cursory study of NJ statutes says that if the operator of the car is present, a parking ticket should be given in person. Is it lawful to mail parking tickets despite the operator being present?
3. My wife works a very busy city job, while I'm self-employed. As such, I'm the only one who has the time to fight these tickets. However, when she decides to seek my help for a drop-off at the last minute, we inevitably use her car since it's the one at the end of the driveway. The citations are therefore in her name though I'm the operator. Does she need to be present in the municipal court if I decide to fight the tickets? It's probably going to be a no-go if she needs to be present.
4. If we do win while contesting the ticket, is it possible to file a class action on behalf of everyone who has been issued such tickets in the past (assuming we can demonstrate that this is a practice)? I ask this because I suspect that even with a few contested tickets, the town likely has no motivation to stop issuing these tickets. I've paid several of them at this point, though I suppose it still beats spending an hour locked up in the official pick up lot.
Sorry for the long post, and thank you for reading this far.
There is a street somewhat near our local train where cars often stop to drop off or pick up their commuting spouses. There are no driveways on this section of this street, only side fences on one side and side of a commercial property on the other. I've drawn up a rectangle marking the section of street below:
My wife commutes and, when she's running late, I drop her off / pick her up here. Driving into the station pick-up/drop-off lot during commuting hours from this side of town takes 30-60 minutes (yes, really!), so it's no wonder that many people tend to use this section of street.
This section of street used to be marked as 'no parking 1-1.30PM', no doubt in order to prevent commuters from leaving their cars there for the entire work-day. But that did not prevent us from stopping to pick-up/discharge passengers. This was going on for a few years, without incident.
However, about 5 months ago, the township suddenly changed the signs to say 'no parking 6AM-9PM', and they began ticketing drivers who stopped to pick-up passengers. Initially, they ticketed only the drivers who were stopped waiting for passengers to arrive (to be picked up), which made sense to me, because that could be considered parking. They also handed out the tickets in person to the driver. Eventually, after perhaps thousands of such tickets, cars stopped waiting there, and would only arrive after their passengers were already there. So no one was really parking there any more. There were therefore no more than 2-3 cars on the street at any given time, for the few seconds that it takes a passenger to get in/out.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether the township did not want to part with this new revenue stream, but they switched tactics. They now have 2 unmarked cars quietly noting down the plates of the cars stopping to actively pick-up/discharge passengers, though that barely takes a few seconds. The street signs still say 'no parking 6AM-9PM'. Inevitably, the parking tickets arrive in the mail 1-2 weeks later. The citation says 'Illegal parking', even though you weren't parked.
Hence my questions:
1. Is it lawful to issue 'illegal parking' tickets to cars that stop for the express purpose of picking up or discharging a passenger? If not, how would one go about fighting such a ticket? Would a dash cam feed help?
2. My cursory study of NJ statutes says that if the operator of the car is present, a parking ticket should be given in person. Is it lawful to mail parking tickets despite the operator being present?
3. My wife works a very busy city job, while I'm self-employed. As such, I'm the only one who has the time to fight these tickets. However, when she decides to seek my help for a drop-off at the last minute, we inevitably use her car since it's the one at the end of the driveway. The citations are therefore in her name though I'm the operator. Does she need to be present in the municipal court if I decide to fight the tickets? It's probably going to be a no-go if she needs to be present.
4. If we do win while contesting the ticket, is it possible to file a class action on behalf of everyone who has been issued such tickets in the past (assuming we can demonstrate that this is a practice)? I ask this because I suspect that even with a few contested tickets, the town likely has no motivation to stop issuing these tickets. I've paid several of them at this point, though I suppose it still beats spending an hour locked up in the official pick up lot.
Sorry for the long post, and thank you for reading this far.
Parking Tickets: Can an Illegal Parking Ticket Be Issued for Stopping
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire