Never pay a parking ticket – without a fight.
That’s the advice of former parking-violations Judge Haskell Nussbaum, whose new book “Beat That Parking Ticket” offers inside tips on getting summonses tossed out.
Most New Yorkers don’t bother contesting tickets, which they tend to view as an infuriating but unavoidable cost of city life.
Nussbaum, 37, disagrees.
“Every ticket is worth fighting,” he told The Post.
Of the small percentage of those ticketed who bother to defend themselves, many are unfamiliar with the parking rules and offer lame excuses or self-incriminating evidence, he said.
“I’m sure that you were ten feet away,” he remembers telling one uninformed driver. “The problem is that the law says fifteen feet.”
Sob stories will get you nowhere, Nussbaum says. Technicalities are far more effective.
“Argue some sort of legal or rational reason,” he said. “And if you want to convince somebody you’ve got to give them a chance to ask you questions – so show up in person.”
Though Nussbaum recommends bringing in documentation including photos or doctor’s notes, he says leave the ticket itself at home. That’s because the digital scans the city takes of each ticket are often too unreadable – grounds for instant dismissal.
Ticket defects including incorrect license plate numbers and locations are common, and judges are often happy to help you find them, Nussbaum said.
“Judges have a kind of incentive to find a defect – because we can get through so many more tickets in any given day if we only have to spend twenty seconds on a ticket that’s easily thrown out,” he said.
Pleading poverty won’t help, Nussbaum said.
“The trouble is that the Parking Bureau’s attitude is that if you can’t afford to pay the fine, you shouldn’t be driving,” he said.
Nussbaum’s book will be out in December.