Summons for parking fine

FLOOPER

I just received a parking fine, for parking in a Clearway (was only 3 minutes outside time), yesterday to appear in court in 7 days time. I rang the Parking Fines Office and was told that it was too late to pay by credit card and I'd have to appear.

What can I expect and what would the consequence be if I didn't turn up.

Now the summons was given to my brother not me and I could plead also that the fines went to an address I wasn't living at for a number of years but I use the address often for mail as my family run a business from there and I didn't notify change of address on my motor tax form.

Just want to know what I'll be hit with . Thanks.

Gregor Samsa

FLOOPER wrote:

I could plead also that the fines went to an address I wasn't living at for a number of years but I use the address often for mail as my family run a business from there and I didn't notify change of address on my motor tax form.

I don't think that strategy will get you too far. It's up to you to notify Motor Tax of your change of address, so I don't see how this could possibly be regarded as a mitigating circumstance in not paying the fine.

FLOOPER wrote:

what would the consequence be if I didn't turn up

While I don't know the specifics, I'm sure you don't need us to tell you that the consequences of not turning up will be worse than whatever happens if you do.

Anan1

I've just come back from court today - my girlfriend had parked in a loading bay. I saw a lot of cases, fines ranged from a low of €75 to a seemingly-standard €200 + €65 costs for the no shows. I (the g/f) got fined €100, i'd say that was about average.

wyndham

Is the time marked on the ticket?
3 minutes is very harsh. Sure it would take 3 minutes to write the ticket. Tell the judge that your watch was 4 minutes slow. He will go easy on you i'd say.

bo-bo

dude, if you dont show up a warrant will be issued for your arrest and you will be held in custody and brought before the next available court. dont go down that route - it just isnt worth it.

Victor

wyndham wrote:

Is the time marked on the ticket?
3 minutes is very harsh. Sure it would take 3 minutes to write the ticket. Tell the judge that your watch was 4 minutes slow. He will go easy on you i'd say.

You won't get any grace for clearways, wheelchair spaces or loading bays.

You usually will get some grace if its just an expired meter.

skibum

Anan1 wrote:

I've just come back from court today - my girlfriend had parked in a loading bay. I saw a lot of cases, fines ranged from a low of €75 to a seemingly-standard €200 + €65 costs for the no shows. I (the g/f) got fined €100, i'd say that was about average.

Were you in court in Dun laoghaire? I was also there on friday morning, I'm contesting my ticket on a technicality, got it adjourned till september

oleras

I know someone......not me ! but we share DNA, has never paid a parking fine in his life, and has racked up a few of them in the past, summons were served threats of bench warrents, but they all disappear after a time, nothing ever came of them. He lives in another country now anyway.

But if it was me, i would go to court and pay up. And be honest with the judge, it might be a breath of fresh air for him/her and might even go easy on ya !

cpoh1

Anan1 wrote:

I've just come back from court today - my girlfriend had parked in a loading bay. I saw a lot of cases, fines ranged from a low of €75 to a seemingly-standard €200 + €65 costs for the no shows. I (the g/f) got fined €100, i'd say that was about average.

You got stung big time there. I was up in Cork for this last month, everyone including myself were getting 20 euro fines with 20 costs, less than the fine itself after the 28 day period had elapsed.

To the op, just apoligise to the judge and tell him youre really sorry for forgetting to pay and that you have no excuses, you'll be grand.

Jo King

It all depends on the Judge. When you get to court you will see what the mood is. You have a right to appeal to the Circuit Court. Some judges view the bother of having to turn up in court as punishment enough in itself hence small fines. Some think you are trying to keep them in work and were too mean to pay the on the spot fine hence large fines. If you do not turn up you will be convicted in your absence and then pursued by the guards for payment of what will invariably be a larger fine than if you had turned up.

BnA

bo-bo wrote:

dude, if you dont show up a warrant will be issued for your arrest and you will be held in custody and brought before the next available court. dont go down that route - it just isnt worth it.

Horse Kack. Utter utter horse Kack.

A warrent will not be issued for your arrest if you don't show up to court for a parking offence. The fine will just be decided without you and you will be notified by post.

I have been up 2 or 3 times (I am quite an organised person...!!!!) and I have never shown up. Got fined, payed the fine, end of story.

If it was possible at all though I would show up if I was you as it does seem to help in lessening the fine.

For one of my fines for parking in Cork, I wrote to the court explaining that I wouldn't be able to show up due to work commitments. I explained that I had tried to pay the fine on numerous occasions by credit card over the phone but the phone was never answered in the parking fines office of Cork City Council. I don't know what the judge said on the day as I wasn't there, but I got off without a fine.

bo-bo

BnA wrote:

Horse Kack. Utter utter horse Kack.

A warrent will not be issued for your arrest if you don't show up to court for a parking offence. The fine will just be decided without you and you will be notified by post.

I have been up 2 or 3 times (I am quite an organised person...!!!!) and I have never shown up. Got fined, payed the fine, end of story.

If it was possible at all though I would show up if I was you as it does seem to help in lessening the fine.

For one of my fines for parking in Cork, I wrote to the court explaining that I wouldn't be able to show up due to work commitments. I explained that I had tried to pay the fine on numerous occasions by credit card over the phone but the phone was never answered in the parking fines office of Cork City Council. I don't know what the judge said on the day as I wasn't there, but I got off without a fine.

firstly, to the op, apologies, i should have informed you that this would be the worst case scenario.

@ BnA, you contacted the court, fair enough, thats prob why there was no follow up and you got away with it.

i was simply trying to point out to the op the worst case scenario of what would happen if he didnt show up.

some judges still require the accused to be represented in such cases. in your case you got away with it, but the judge can still issue a warrant for non appearance when summonsed, even though its only a minor infingement.

lets put it like this, if the op were to follow my advice, the worst that would happen to him is that he would be convicted while having been present, a day off work and a few costs etc.

edit

i should also mention the possibility of an adjournment (really, it comes down to variables in the equation - you can see why legal advice is expensive )

BnA

bo-bo wrote:

..@ BnA, you contacted the court, fair enough, thats prob why there was no follow up and you got away with it....

As I said. This has happened me a few times. I contacted the court once and got away with it.

However at least 3 other times I just ignored them, got a fine in the post afterwards, and paid it.

On one occasion it I went about 12 months without paying the resulting fine. The local Garda Station rang me up and asked me to pay it as a summons had been issued as I hadn't paid it yet.. I dropped into the Garda Station and paid it and that was the end of it.

There is no way whatsoever in the world that you will spend a single second in Garda Custody for an unpaid parking fine unless the Gardai are really out to get you.

That said, to get back to the origional point, I would agree with the other posters here, if you have the time, you are definately better off going to the court. It probably will reduce the fine you have to pay.

bo-bo

BnA wrote:

There is no way whatsoever in the world that you will spend a single second in Garda Custody for an unpaid parking fine unless the Gardai are really out to get you.

its the district court judge that issues the warrant, the gardai only execute it.

back on topic, maybe the op would let us know how he got on once the issue is resolved. whats your district court area btw?

FLOOPER

bo-bo wrote:

its the district court judge that issues the warrant, the gardai only execute it.

back on topic, maybe the op would let us know how he got on once the issue is resolved. whats your district court area btw?

Brunswick Street Dublin. Pain in the ass gettin in there. Will let you know what happens tomorrow. I hope they're fairly punctual as I'm gamblin a bit with work.

NBar

wyndham wrote:

Is the time marked on the ticket?
3 minutes is very harsh. Sure it would take 3 minutes to write the ticket. Tell the judge that your watch was 4 minutes slow. He will go easy on you i'd say.

I bet if you were 3 minutes late for your flight with Ryan Air they would wait the clearways are there for a reason so the rest of us can get home

Wishbone Ash

FLOOPER wrote:

Now the summons was given to my brother not me

I thought that the summons had to be delivered to the relevant person by a Garda. Mrs Wishbone has got a couple and the Gardaí checked that they had the correct person (much to the curiosity of the neighbours!).

The worst part about the court appearance is queuing up with all the skangers! :eek:

wyndham wrote:

3 minutes is very harsh. Sure it would take 3 minutes to write the ticket

3 minutes over when detected. The time taken to write the ticket is irrelevant.

JHMEG

Gone done myself for the same thing about 6 years ago, and forgot to pay the £15 parking fine.

Went to court. Was case #17. Cases #1 to #16 were mostly for speeding and the judge was handing out bans with fines like lollipops that morning.

Got a £100 fine and my name in the local rag.

Didn't think to pay the fine, garda called to the door about 3 months later looking for the money.

FLOOPER

Apologies for delay in gettin back to you all. Was just released this morning.

Just kiddin. I eventually got a parking spot outside court where my case was due to be heard at 11. Well after hearing that the Garda wasn't there at about 11.15 and the Judge was issuing new dates I was gettin a bit desperate. My case wasn't called till 12.20 where another garda was standing in for my one. It was, in the end, struck out thankfully. The garda didn't say why - I presume it was out of date as the orignal offence was in August. The judge gave me a wry smile!:)

He was dishing out 180 euro fines to those that weren't there. Most others disputed their case with varying degrees of success. He seemed a fair enough man from Donegal I reckon and was intersted to hear what kind of obstruction the said illegally parked car was causing and what time it was.

Anyway, was sweating about my car as I had only banked on being there about an hour. I was also sweating about my absence from work. But all in all, everything worked out fine.:D

Darragh29

phutyle wrote:

I don't think that strategy will get you too far. It's up to you to notify Motor Tax of your change of address, so I don't see how this could possibly be regarded as a mitigating circumstance in not paying the fine.



While I don't know the specifics, I'm sure you don't need us to tell you that the consequences of not turning up will be worse than whatever happens if you do.

If you do a no-show, the judge will likely issue a bench warrant for your arrest. If this is the way it goes, you'd be arrested before the court date and kept in custody until your court appearance. Turn up and face the music, if you don't the consequences could be a lot more severe.

maidhc

Darragh29 wrote:

If you do a no-show, the judge will likely issue a bench warrant for your arrest. If this is the way it goes, you'd be arrested before the court date and kept in custody until your court appearance. Turn up and face the music, if you don't the consequences could be a lot more severe.

Not for RTA. You will just get the maximum fine and it will be given to your local Garda station for collection.

I settled one case recently with the Council for over 2k worth of parking tickets. They ultimately agreed to a 50% reduction, and not to make our client spend every tuesday for the next 6mths going to court. It was a harsh case though, the individual did not even realise he was being ticketed due to the fact no notice was ever put on the windscreen. By the time the dockets came in the post (2 months later) there was a massive bill racked up.

ninty9er

3 Minutes seems harsh. Ring the local super if it was a Garda that issued it...despite their protests, they CAN make these disappear...you just need to keep arguing. I had a local representative back me up at which point the super dropped the case. I was definitely not in the wrong though. 3 minutes would see in the grey area between right and wrong:rolleyes:

parsi

Will any Public Rep do or would they have to be in Government ?

Marcus.Aurelius

maidhc wrote:

Not for RTA. You will just get the maximum fine and it will be given to your local Garda station for collection.

I settled one case recently with the Council for over 2k worth of parking tickets. They ultimately agreed to a 50% reduction, and not to make our client spend every tuesday for the next 6mths going to court. It was a harsh case though, the individual did not even realise he was being ticketed due to the fact no notice was ever put on the windscreen. By the time the dockets came in the post (2 months later) there was a massive bill racked up.

I doubt any client could be stupid enough not to realise they were parking illegally for 2k worth of fines. Sad to see the council renege on the fines, disgusting really.

MrPudding

BnA wrote:

However at least 3 other times I just ignored them, got a fine in the post afterwards, and paid it.

On one occasion it I went about 12 months without paying the resulting fine. The local Garda Station rang me up and asked me to pay it as a summons had been issued as I hadn't paid it yet.. I dropped into the Garda Station and paid it and that was the end of it.

The key here is you paid it. What would happen if you didn't?

BnA wrote:

There is no way whatsoever in the world that you will spend a single second in Garda Custody for an unpaid parking fine unless the Gardai are really out to get you.

See above.

MrP

Victor

maidhc wrote:

the individual did not even realise he was being ticketed due to the fact no notice was ever put on the windscreen.

How did this happen?

ninty9er

parsi wrote:

Will any Public Rep do or would they have to be in Government ?

Any Public rep will/should look into it for you. try and scope out which one would be best suited. Has (s)he been on the council, would they know the fines administrator. For a Garda, has (s)he worked as a solicitor in the past, they'd know the Gardaí in the locality fairly well, especially if they're on community policing committees