Click here to fight your New York traffic ticket.
If you’ve ever gotten a traffic or parking ticket in Nassau County, chances are you’ve had an encounter with the TPVA. So you might be wondering what the TPVA is, what it does, and if you actually have to pay the tickets that it issues. This article will answer each of those questions and then some to help put an end to your Googling.
What Does TPVA Stand For?
TPVA stands for Traffic and Parking Violations Agency. The Nassau County TPVA is an administrative court under the jurisdiction of New York state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). If you’re more familiar with New York City’s TVB, then here’s a fitting analogy: The TVB is to New York City what the TPVA is to Nassau County.
The TPVA is an official government agency, which means that you are required by law to respond to and/or pay all traffic and parking tickets that it issues. Except for rare exceptions, the only time that you will not have to pay the cost of these tickets is when you take your case to court and get it dismissed. We’ll talk more about that later on.
What Does the TPVA Do?
The TPVA’s mission statement is “To enhance pedestrian and vehicular safety through education and timely adjudication of all traffic, parking and photo enforcement rated offenses.” This mission statement provides a tidy summation of what the agency does, which isn’t just handling ticket cases.
TPVA Traffic Court
First and foremost, the Nassau County TPVA focuses on the administration of court cases for non-criminal traffic, parking, and camera citations. On occasion, the TPVA will also oversee the administration of criminal traffic offenses as well, but the majority of the cases that fall under the agency’s purview are non-criminal.
One of the most important parts about traffic law in Nassau County is a document called a “fine schedule.” No, we don’t mean a really good-looking schedule. A fine schedule is an official list of violations alongside the suggested (or mandated) fine associated with them. For example, the fine schedule of Nassau County states that running a red light will likely cost you $250. But that’s before any surcharges and other fees.
TPVA Educational Materials
Beyond the courtroom, the TPVA strives to educate drivers about the New York court system and traffic laws, particularly as they affect Nassau County. The agency’s primary website provides a long list of helpful links, each of which breaks down more information that can help you learn more about the rules of the road in the county.
For example, you can find Nassau County’s county-specific fine schedule, Boot and Tow Program, ADA compliance guidelines, and more. Much, much more. We could go on and on about how great the TPVA’s website is in comparison to that of other counties’ traffic agencies, but let’s save that for another article.
Where Is the TVPA Located?
The main office of the TPVA is at the following address:
16 Cooper Street
Hempstead, NY 11550
Punch that address into Google Maps and you should be able to navigate right to it. If that’s not an option for you or if you’d like a little more detail on the agency’s location, we’ll provide that here:
The TPVA is right off the Meadowbrook State Parkway, in the same plaza as the Whole Foods. To get into that plaza, you’ll want to enter from East Gate Boulevard. This will put you in or near the Whole Foods’s parking lot. Then head South (left) until you see the large, curved, brick building with several floors of floor-to-ceiling glass windows. That’s the TPVA.
What Should You Bring to Court?
What you should bring to court depends on what you’re going to court to do. If you’re just trying to pay your ticket, all you’ll need is the ticket (citation), your driver license, money, and maybe a few supporting documents (depending on the violation).
However, if you’re not happy about the idea of paying hundreds of dollars in fines for a violation you didn’t commit, you’ll want to plead not guilty and contest the charges. In that case, the list of what you’ll need to bring to court is a little longer.
In addition to all of the same things as if you were paying a ticket, you’ll want to bring the following: business casual attire (which you should be wearing), a positive attitude, and your lawyer. Business casual attire and a positive attitude help to bolster your image. If you’re trying to get out of a ticket, looking like an upstanding member of society will improve your chances of doing so.
But what improves your chances of doing so the most is hiring a lawyer. Hiring an attorney to represent you in a court of law is no guarantee of achieving a more favorable result, like a dismissal. However, lawyers know better than anybody else how to achieve those results. So, if you partner with an expert attorney, your odds of getting a better result should at least be better than if you had gone to court alone.
Lawyers might instruct you to bring other supporting items to court with you as well, which they will then motion to have admitted into evidence. Some of the most powerful pieces of evidence are pictures and videos. After all, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and what is a video but a bunch of pictures played back to back?
The more compelling evidence that you submit on your behalf, the more likely the judge is to take your word over that of the ticketing police officer. The key is to only submit compelling evidence. Don’t waste the judge’s time with 1,000 pointless photographs of broken windshields, flat tires, etc. Instead, talk to your lawyer and see which pictures and videos might be the most compelling.
For example, let’s say you’ve been issued a ticket for failing to stop at a stop sign. Dashcam footage that proves the stop sign was never visible from your perspective could be compelling enough to have your case dismissed by itself. Supplement that with witness testimony, photographs of obstacles blocking the sign, etc., and you’ll be well on your way to forming a compelling argument.
How Long Do You Have To Appeal to the TPVA Court?
Unfortunately, nobody wins every time. Sometimes, you’ll fight your best fight just to be convicted anyway. Although that can be demoralizing, you can find hope in this fact: It’s not over yet. If you’re convicted of a traffic, parking, or camera violation, you can contact the TPVA to appeal that conviction.
You have 30 days from your court date to file an appeal with the court. More specifically, you have 30 days from the initial receipt of final disposition, which is generally (but not always) the court date. The official form that you must submit to the TPVA is called a Notice of Appeal. To submit it, send it by mail to the following address:
Nassau County Traffic & Parking Violations Agency
16 Cooper Street
Hempstead, NY 11550
Once the TPVA receives and processes your Notice of Appeal, it will mail a copy of it to the Appellate Term. That’s who’ll process the official appeal.
Your next step will be to order the transcript from TopKey Court Reporting, the agency’s outsourced court reporting contractor. You can contact TopKey Court Reporting at the following email address: klorenzo.tkcr@gmail.com.
Here’s where having a lawyer handle this process gets particularly important. Once TopKey sends you the transcript, which they might call “minutes,” you’ll need to present it to the TPVA in a process called “settling the minutes.” This means arguing your case once again, this time in a manner convincing enough to have the appellate court overturn your conviction.
After the minutes are settled, the TPVA will send your entire file back to the Appellate Term, which will then notify you of the next steps. That might include information pertaining to a potential overturned conviction or it might mean reading that your conviction has been upheld. What the Appellate Term decides is difficult to predict.
What’s certain, however, is that your odds of winning an appeal are better if you know what you’re doing. Instead of sifting for nuggets of helpful information in online articles, download the WinIt app and start talking to an expert traffic ticket attorney today. Nobody knows your case like you do and nobody knows the law like lawyers do. So partner with a lawyer on the WinIt app and together you just might take your case to court and win it.
