By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CITY HALL — Forget having to schlep to traffic court.
Residents slapped with parking tickets or fines for everything from littering to failing to recycle, shovel snow or keep their properties free from rats will now be able to contest their tickets online.
On Monday, the city launched a new online tribunal system where residents can request to have dozens of types of cases decided without having to set foot in court.
While drivers used to be able to contest parking tickets and enter a written defense of why they believed they were innocent online, they will now also be able to upload evidence to support their cases, including scans of vehicle registrations and photographs, officials said.
Evidence will then be reviewed by an administrative law judge who will send out a decision via email for traffic matters or snail mail for other disputes, often within 30 days.
No online system was previously in place for contesting health and sanitation violations.
"I think it's fair to say no one likes getting parking tickets," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at City Hall on Monday. But he said the point was to make disputing tickets less of a hassle for those who don't think they should pay.
"It means that you won't have to skip out of work to contest your parking ticket on your lunch hour. You don't have to spend time on the weekends making photocopies...to dispute your ticket by mail," he said.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said that it was especially unfair to force small businesses to choose between paying for tickets they didn't deserve and losing money because they had to close their doors to go to court.
But officials acknowledged that residents may face delays if judges have any questions about the evidence they submit.
For parking tickets, judges will adjourn hearings for 30 days and invite residents to provide additional information, a Department of Finance spokesman said.
Residents disputing non-traffic violations will be mailed a hard-copy questionnaire with pre-set questions to fill in based on the type of violation, officials said.
The Department of Finance currently issues nine to 10 million tickets a year, which result in about 1.2 million hearings, Commissioner David Frankel said.
About half of hearings that are challenged are dismissed.
The Department of Environmental Control issues approximately 700,000 tickets a year for sanitation, health code and other violations, about 250,000 of which lead to hearings.
