Abandon Vehicle Ticket

[SecretDuck]

What is the name of your state? NJ - Essex County

Hi I have a few questions and would appreciate any help I can get.

I recieved an abandoned vehicle ticket on a monday at a little after noon, shortly before I went to go move the vehicle. The vehicle I was using is registered to my father, the police officer attempted to call his house but no one picked up. I am over the age of 18 and was wondering whether my father must accompany me to the court date, because the car is registered to him, or if I can go alone?

Also I was wondering if someone could help me with the definition of an abandoned vehicle? By the way, I was parking in a space that I park in quite frequently on a residential road and normally move my car and repark in multiple times a week. There are no posted signs concerning alternate side parking, time limit parking, snow removal parking or any other signs posting restrictions. On this particular occasion, I can home from work on thursday night of the preceeding week and parked my car in the space. Snow began to fall friday morning and continued through saturday afternoon. Not that this matters much but I didnt have school or work that weekend because of the snow and therefore didnt go to move the car until monday. The car was covered in snow but the plates were on the car and the registration is valid. Did I abandon the vehicle?

Also the ticket I found had a few inaccurracies. The time of the incident was recorded at shortly after midnight on Sunday night, and yet I recieved the call shortly after noon on Monday. I am thinking he switched his AMs and PMs. He also seems to have done that for my original court date as it originally said 9 PM and I later found out it was for 9 AM, additionally it seems he forgot to check the "court appearance required" box and had I not called the courthouse to find out how much the ticket was for, I would easliy have missed my original court date. Inconvenient yes, but I am not sure if any of this is grounds to fight the ticket, is it?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[efflandt]

Many cities have odd/even parking at night for snow removal and/or street sweeping and may require that you either call the police dept. or buy a monthly pass to avoid getting an overnight parking ticket. This is not necessarily posted everywhere, but "might" be indicated by a sign where you come into town on major streets. Otherwise it is just something you become aware of the first time you get a ticket.

In any case, if the ticket has a statute or ordinance on it, look it up on the internet or your local library. Or ask the police department that cited you why it was considered abandoned.

[FlyingRon]

Do you have proper and current tags and (if required) inspection stickers?

[SecretDuck]

Thank you both, I will look up the infraction number on the internet and see what I can find. In response to Flying Ron's question, yes all of my documents including inspection are up to date and the license plates were on the vehicle as well. If I can't find any info on the ticket online I will call the police department to ask them if there are any alternate street parking rules that are effective on or after snow days. Thanks