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New York’s traffic court system has some of the niftiest tools and features in the United States. That’s probably because few cities in the United States issue traffic tickets quite like New York City. That brings us to the MySummons.NYC. This article will provide you with everything you need to know about MySummons, including what it is and how you can use it.
What Is MySummons?
MySummons is a website owned and operated by the New York State Supreme Court. It’s an offshoot of NYCourts.gov, which is the primary website for the New York State Unified Court System. Most importantly, MySummons is a summons lookup tool.
To find your summons, go to www.mysummons.nyc and click “Find My Summons.” That will take you to the WebCriminal website, which provides you with information on criminal summonses issued by New York State courts.
Just to repeat that, this website is for criminal summonses only, not parking tickets or traffic tickets. However, if you’ve been charged with a criminal traffic violation, a summons might come alongside a traffic ticket. Reckless driving and aggravated vehicular assault are two examples of this process in action.
What Is a Criminal Summons?
A criminal summons, also known as a “pink ticket,” is a summons issued by a police officer for violating certain laws. In general, summonses function as official legal notices of cases against you. In the case of criminal summonses, they will include the allegations against you, a court date, and other important information.
Prosecutors in the state of New York then use the information contained within the summons to determine what to charge you with. In some cases, you might find that your summons includes charges that aren’t brought against you in court. That’s because, as evidence comes to light and as prosecutors examine it, the charges may change or be dropped entirely. The better your lawyer, the better your odds of getting that most favorable outcome.
Depending on the crime, the officer who confronts you for it will have the choice between issuing a summons and arresting you on the spot. That means, by being civil, respectful, and obedient when detained by a police officer, you can potentially avoid being sent straight to jail. Then again, if you’ve committed a serious crime (like vehicular homicide), there’s virtually no chance you’ll avoid the handcuffs.
What Do I Have To Do After I Receive a Criminal Summons?
After receiving a criminal summons (pink ticket) the first thing you should do is call a criminal defense attorney. Criminal defense attorneys spend years training to defend people just like you from charges just like these. If you do not want to go to jail, your best bet is to hire an expert lawyer to defend you.
After securing a lawyer, check what charge code is listed on the summons. If it is for either of the following two offenses, then you can enter a plea by mail:
- A.C. 10-125(b) (Public Consumption of Alcohol)
- A.C. 16-118 (6) (Public Urination)
If the charges against you do not appear in the above list, then you will have to enter your plea in person. To do so, you will need to go to the court address listed on the summons during the operating hours listed on the summons. Once there you can report your plea in person to the courthouse staff. This can be done no more than one week before the scheduled appearance date on your summons.
Can I Plea on the Web?
Unfortunately, MySummons does not permit the ability to enter criminal pleas online. Instead, you will have to report your plea as mentioned in the section above. There are currently no exceptions other than those that we have already covered.
If I Lose My Summons or Cannot Read the Writing on the Summons, How Do I Find Out My Appearance Date?
Losing a summons or not being able to read what’s written on it are not acceptable excuses should you fail to appear on your assigned court date. A warrant may still be issued for your arrest and you might still face the same charges (and also a few new ones). For those reasons, you will need to familiarize yourself with MySummons.NYC.
MySummons is a summons lookup tool designed to help handle this exact situation. Go to www.mysummons.nyc and click “Find My Summons.” You will arrive at the WebCriminal summons search website, which includes three ways to search for open summonses:
- Case Identifier
This search option allows you to search for your summons by the case number. Think of case numbers like fingerprints. There’s a unique one for each court case, so it’s impossible to pull up the wrong case if you enter the correct case number. Due to that fact, this is the most efficient search you can use to find your case.
The problem is most people don’t make a habit of writing down their case numbers or otherwise remembering them. So don’t feel bad or begin to stress if you’ve lost both your summons and your case number. Instead, move on to the next search option.
- Defendant Name
This search option allows you to search for your summons with your name. If you have a particularly common name, you might have to sift through the records and hope that your middle initial accompanies your casefile. If your name is relatively uncommon, you will more easily be able to locate your specific case.
Once you’ve found your case, click on the case number next to your name. It should appear as hyperlinked blue text. Clicking that will open to the “Case Details – Summary” page for your case. That page includes four sections of information related to your case: the defendant’s full name and birth year, some information about the incident and the summons, the defendant’s attorney’s information, and information about the next appearance date.
Your summons number will appear next to “Summons/Ticket #” in the second section.
It should be noted that you can use this search option to look up people other than yourself, including corporations. It is not recommended that you do that, as there are a number of state laws against allowing that information to bias your treatment of other people.
- Court Calendar
This search option allows you to search for your summons based on your assigned court date. In order for it to work, you’ll need to have some information readily available to enter into the search system: the court where your hearing will be held, the date when it will be held, and which part of the court it’s for (or which judge is overseeing it).
If you don’t know which court the hearing is scheduled to be at, try guessing. Ask yourself where you were pulled over or arrested. Try to remember where that was then look up which county it was in. That should give you a good idea of which court has jurisdiction over your case.
If you’re not sure what date your case is scheduled for, you can enter a time frame. But be careful, select too wide a range and you’ll have to sift through a massive list of court cases before you can find your own.
The most difficult part of this search is finding out which part of the court or judge’s name to enter. Court parts are often labeled something like “AP-D” and the only people who know what those acronyms mean are typically the lawyers who go to those courts every day. Consider Googling who the judges are at that court and entering their names one by one until you find your name in the search results.
To the left of your name is the “Csae #” column. Click the blue, hyperlinked case number next to your name. Doing so will open the “Case Details – Summary” menu talked about in the Defendant Name search option. In section four of that webpage, you will see your next scheduled appearance date.
Where Do I Go To Answer My Summons?
Except for Public Intoxication and Public Urination charges, all summonses must be answered in person at one of the locations listed below:
- Bronx Criminal Court
215 E 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451 - Kings & New York Criminal Court
1 Centre Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10007 - Red Hook Community Justice Center
88-94 Visitation Place, Brooklyn, NY 11213 - Midtown Community Court
314 W 54th Street, New York, NY 10019 - Queens Criminal Court
125-01 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens, NY 11417 - Richmond Criminal Court
26 Central Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10301
For more information, contact the New York City Transit Information Line at (718) 330-1234.
