Ugh! I just got a Notice of Liability in my mailbox! It says my car was at a meter in Bay Ridge on a Tuesday afternoon at 2:14 pm, but I was nowhere near Bay Ridge. My car was parked on a side street in Sunnyside all day because I took the 7 to an appointment in LIC! I checked my calendar, I have actual time-stamped MetroCard swipes and a Google Timeline screenshot. The plate on the photo is hard to read, and the car color doesn't match either: mine is dark blue, the photo looks black or maybe green. Do I really have to go through the online hearing? Has anyone had a plate misread by one of those handheld readers or camera systems? I want to fight it out of principle, but I also don't want to risk losing and paying late penalties! Has anyone tried submitting Google Timeline plus a MetroCard record as evidence? Did they actually look at it? Tell me the dispute process doesn't take forever!

I got one like that last fall! Mine said Brooklyn but I was parked in a lot near my mom's in Flushing. I just paid it because I was scared of late fees. How long do you get to dispute? I thought you had 30 days or something? I didn't know you could use Google Timeline, that's smart. Do you have to have a front license plate photo? My ticket had no photo at all and the plate number was one digit off, but I couldn't figure out where to even begin. So I just fed the machine. Now I'm annoyed.

Wait, they can just send a ticket with a photo that doesn't match? That seems wrong. I thought parking tickets were only if they put it on your windshield. Is the mail one different? I moved to the city last year and every time I see a ticket on a car I get nervous. Did you check the actual ticket number on the NYC Serv site? I once got a red light camera thing in Jersey and the photo showed a completely different make. I called and they said it was my plate, but my plate is a vanity and the photo had regular. I gave up and paid, but it felt awful. What does the online hearing involve? Do you need a lawyer?

OMG yes! The camera tickets come by mail and they do NOT have to prove who was driving, just that the plate was there. But if the plate is misread, you have a real defense! The problem is the online hearing is a weird 'upload your evidence' thing with character limits. You have to upload documents as PDF or JPG. They say they review within a few weeks, but a friend waited forever for a decision. @big_city_beth, if your ticket had a one-digit plate error, you should have dismissed it! Did you keep a copy? If the plate number doesn't match your registration, that's a defect, not your car. @DykerNewbie, yes 'parking' vs 'camera' are different. A traffic agent writes the first and puts it on your windshield; the second is mailed after a camera or plate reader. I'm going to submit my OMNY tap records. Has anyone used OMNY records for a parking ticket? They show station and time, right? The photo car has a sunroof, mine doesn't! That should be obvious!

Oh no, I didn't keep the ticket! It was months ago. I was just glad the late fine didn't balloon. But now I'm curious. Can you look up old tickets on the NYC Serv portal? I tried to make an account but it asked for a PIN from my ticket and I lost the paper. Is there another way? Also, OMNY tap records are a great idea. Does the OMNY account show individual trips? Mine just shows a charge sometimes days later. I need to check. For your ticket, if the photo car has a sunroof and yours doesn't, that's huge right? I thought the hearing officer has to give you a break on that. Do you need a notarized statement or something? My cousin had a camera ticket in Queens and he said he just wrote 'car is not mine' and it got thrown out, but he had a different plate entirely.

I'm following because this is the stuff that scares me about having a car here. Can someone explain the difference between a 'notice of liability' and a regular parking ticket? I got a bus lane ticket in Manhattan last month mailed to me because the camera caught the car. Is that the same? I went on the portal and it gave me a hearing date but I don't want to go downtown. Is the online review different from a live TVB hearing? Also can you get a ticket for a car that's the same model and color but wrong plate? What if the plate reader put a 0 as an O or a 1 as an I? That must happen all the time with New York plates! Maybe that's what happened to me. Where do you find the photo? On the back of the ticket or online? I don't remember seeing one.

Okay here's what I found out from digging! There are TVB (Traffic Violations Bureau) tickets and Department of Finance camera violations. A bus lane camera ticket is a DOF camera violation, same family as a red light or speed camera, and it's a notice of liability against the plate, not the driver. The dispute is usually done online at NYC Serv, not in person, unless you request a hearing after a first decision. The photo on mine was on the website, not the back! I used a desktop and searched by plate plus ticket number. I can see the black car clearly has a roof rack rail and mine doesn't, plus the plate digit is smudged. I'm still submitting OMNY records from my phone. The big thing: don't ignore it because late penalties stack, but you can submit a dispute and the late clock pauses while it's under review. I'll update when I get a decision! @big_city_beth if you made an account with an old paper PIN you can also search by plate number on NYC Serv; I found my past tickets that way. @DykerNewbie yes, 0/O and 1/I misreads absolutely happen. If you can get the actual photo and compare the make/model/features, you're in a much better position. Always screenshot the portal page with the photo before you submit because they sometimes 'refresh' the evidence.