“The slightest thing and they will throw it all out.” — r/AskNYC, March 4, 2026
A missing, illegible or mis-described required element is grounds for dismissal — the city's own rule.
Came here to check what tickets you have? That is the other page: a free NY plate search — every open violation, what is owed →
Eight questions, answered in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere. Pick the violation and the result below ends on your violation's own measured dismissal rate, not a citywide average.
1 Is your plate number EXACTLY right on the ticket?
One wrong character matters. Compare it character by character against your registration.2 Is the registration STATE right?
A New York ticket written against a New Jersey plate happens more often than you would think.3 Is the vehicle MAKE right?
Ticket says HONDA and you drive a Hyundai? That is a misdescription of a required element.4 Is the BODY TYPE right (sedan, SUV, van)?
A four-door sedan written up as a van is a misdescription.5 Are the DATE and TIME plausible and complete?
Missing, impossible, or contradicted by a timestamped receipt or photo you hold.6 Is the PLACE of occurrence specific and correct?
Wrong street, wrong block, or too vague to identify where the vehicle actually was.7 Is the violation section or description filled in and legible?
The rule you are accused of breaking has to be identifiable from the ticket itself.8 Is the whole ticket LEGIBLE?
If a required part cannot be read, illegibility is itself a ground.Pick the violation above and this box returns evidence that helps for this charge straight away. Answer all eight questions and it adds how many required-element defects your ticket has and the share of contested tickets of that charge the city itself dismisses. Citywide, 26.2% of contested tickets are dismissed outright and 58.5% end dismissed or reduced, across 27,174,101 decided hearings — but the figure that matters is the one for your specific charge, and it ranges from 4.3% to 89.8%.
The result is banded, and the band is arithmetic you can repeat. It describes the charge, never your hearing: Strong grounds identified when that charge’s published dismissal rate is at least twice the 26.2% citywide rate, Some grounds identified when it is at or above 26.2%, and Limited grounds identified when it is below. Every band is printed with its own number beside it, and none of them is a prediction — nobody can give you one of those.
Evidence that helps for this charge, whatever the charge, if the ticket itself is wrong:
This is a list of documents, not a prediction. Bring what you actually have; never create, alter or re-date anything, and send copies rather than originals.
New York requires the agent to record correctly who and what was ticketed. When a required element is misdescribed, omitted or illegible, hearing officers dismiss — it is one of the cleanest wins there is. Put your ticket next to your registration and answer honestly. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
This is not a rule we invented. The City of New York publishes the list itself, and
states the test in one sentence: A ticket is defective if certain required elements are missing, illegible, or
mis-described. Defective tickets may be dismissed.
It also states the rule most arguments turn on —
The proper section of law must be cited
— and that A “plain English” description of the
violation must also be stated
(nyc.gov, Required elements in a ticket, read September 9, 2026).
The underlying statute is New York Vehicle & Traffic Law §238, which governs what a notice of violation must contain and what follows when it does not (the statute, at the New York State Senate). We name it rather than quote it: our reader could not fetch the statute text on September 9, 2026, and this site does not print a quotation it has not read at source. Every word in quotation marks above is the city's own.
This checker walks all eight required elements, in your browser, in about a minute. Nothing you type leaves the page.
Sometimes that is literally true, and it is the city's published rule rather than a rumour: across 27,174,101 decided hearings New York dismissed 26.2% of contested tickets outright.
You will leave this page knowing whether your summons has a defect the city's own list says is grounds for dismissal, and which element it is, in the city's words. Nothing is sold on this page. Disputing is free at nyc.gov, and the free plate lookup and the free rate tables are the rest of what you need.
If a defect is found and you would rather not write it up yourself, that is the statement builder — free to build, free to read, $12.99 for the clean copy, one payment, no subscription, no cut of your fine. Typing it out yourself is free and always will be.
Don't have the ticket in front of you? Look up your plate free → — your open violations straight from the city's records, nothing stored.
This checker runs entirely in your browser: nothing you type is sent anywhere, stored, or seen by me. It asks the questions a hearing officer asks about the face of the ticket, and it will happily tell you your ticket looks clean — which is a real answer, not a failed sale. If it misses a defect that got your ticket thrown out, email me what it was and I will add it.
New York requires the issuing agent to correctly record the identification elements on the summons: plate number, registration state, vehicle make, body type, date and time, place of occurrence, the violation cited, and the legibility of all of it. Misdescription, omission or illegibility of a required element is an established ground for dismissal at a Department of Finance hearing, and it is among the cleanest wins available because it turns on the ticket itself rather than on what you say happened.
No. New York lets you dispute online, by mail, or in person at no charge, with no lawyer required, decided by a hearing officer. Start at nyc.gov. Answer before the response deadline printed on your own ticket to avoid late penalties — that printed deadline is the authority, not any website.
No. It runs entirely inside your browser. There is no form submission, no upload, and no account. Your answers are never transmitted to us or to anyone else, and there is nothing on this page to store them in.
Often, yes — element defects are only one of the routes. Across 27,174,101 decided hearings, 26.2% of contested tickets are dismissed outright citywide, and the rate varies enormously by violation type. The ranked table for every violation type is published free on this site — look up the charge on your ticket before deciding.
Dismissal rates by violation → · Borough odds →
Rates computed 2026-08-31 from NYC Open Data, "Open Parking and Camera Violations". Based on New York City's published hearing practice on required-element defects. Not legal advice; no outcome guaranteed. Past outcomes do not predict any individual result.
The questions Google shows beside this page's own search results, answered here in one sentence each. Every answer names the city's or the state's own page and links it.
The city republishes its open violations file daily, and a ticket written in the last few days can take a little while to reach it, so an empty result on a very recent ticket is not proof that there is none.
For a parking or camera ticket, search the plate on the city's CityPay system or in the free lookup here; a moving violation written in the five boroughs is the state's, and the DMV's Traffic Violations Bureau lets you look up and print your open TVB tickets.
Search the plate or the summons number on the city's own CityPay system, or use the free lookup on this site, which asks the city's public Open Parking and Camera Violations file and returns what is open against that plate without keeping the plate.
Search the plate or the summons number on the city's own CityPay system, or use the free lookup on this site, which asks the city's public Open Parking and Camera Violations file and returns what is open against that plate without keeping the plate.
City and state pages linked above read September 10, 2026. Rates on this site are computed from the city's public violations file; the amount, the deadline and the outcome printed on your own ticket govern.
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