New York Red Light Tickets Lawyer

Want to fight a red light ticket in New York?  Take a close look at the specific language of the law and the individual elements of the charge and you may be able to dispute the sufficiency of the facts and evidence used to justify the red light violation charge.

Read on for a New York red light ticket attorney’s take on how you might fight the violation and prevent points on your license.  

The full text of the relevant law, NYS Vehicle and Traffic Law Sec 1111(d)1  can be found here.

Penalties for Running a Red Light in New York

A conviction for violating VTL 1111(d)1 will include a fine and surcharge that can range from $200 to $800+ depending on where you get the ticket and your existing driving history.  A conviction will also result in three points on your license. If you accumulate 6 or more points in an 18 month period, you’ll be required to pay a driver assessment starting at $300.  If you accumulate 11 or more points your license will be in the suspension range (some judges have some give with this number so it’s not an automatic suspension at eleven).

Possible Legal Defenses for Running a Red Light

Before worrying about any particular strategy for fighting red light tickets in New York it’s worth taking a quick law at the legal statute in question.  In this case, it’s pretty simple.  

Intersections have a stopping point. This may be a crosswalk, or a specific stop line, or even the curb line in the absence of painted lines on the roadway.  This stopping point is the point where drivers cannot cross if the light in question is in the red phase. This is what an officer is looking for, and this demarcation point will be an important part of any hearing or trial regarding the matter.  The central question at hand is always: what was the color of the light at the time the driver enters (crosses that stopping point) the intersection?

The classic situation that may lead to the issuance of a red light ticket is the driver who blatantly drives straight through an intersection after the light has already entered its red phase. However, there are also situations where a driver may have entered the intersection literally at the same time the light changed from yellow to red — a virtual tie where the officer has simply decided it was too close to let go and chose to issue the driver a summons.  

We also see many situations where the driver entered while the light was in a green phase but was delayed getting through the intersection. This could be a situation where someone is waiting for vehicular or pedestrian traffic to clear before turning or someone going straight but is moving slowly through the intersection due to congestion.  These “delay” situations are completely legal maneuvers that sometimes can appear to an officer at the scene as if it was a violation in situations where they weren’t paying close enough attention to the entire intersection and the cycle of the light.

Note that regardless of your situation, simply stating to a prosecutor or testifying during a hearing that you didn’t do it or the officer made a mistake is unlikely to get you very far.  Whether you went through the light while it was blatantly green, blatantly red or it was a close call you can expect the police officer to argue that the light was blatantly red.  The officer isn’t going to come to court after issuing a red light ticket and say anything other than that.  

As with all moving violations, some people will choose to plead guilty and pay and some may choose to fight. As a three point violation in New York, we’ll almost always recommend trying to fight the ticket and avoid the conviction and points.

1. Understand your Options

Not every court is the same. Some (the NYC TVB) will require a small hearing for every case while others (just about every other court in NYS) will allow for a plea bargain / negotiation process where there may be a chance to avoid the points and red light conviction and just pay a fine. In either case, it is always your right to appear in traffic court to contest the charge in accordance with the particular court procedure.

“Appear” may mean on your own, by lawyer or, in some cases, by affidavit. While there may be more merit to one way of contesting a ticket over the other, there is one constant:  You have no shot of avoiding the points from a red light ticket unless you plead not guilty and try to do something about it.

2. Listen and Inquire at Trial

If you end up at a TVB hearing in NYC or if you bypass the negotiation option elsewhere and end up at a trial, your goals are the same — a dismissal of the charge. The officer will testify regarding what he observed and you’ll want to listen for the basic “elements” of the charge.

• Where (how far prior to the stopping point) were you when the light turned red?
• What color was the light when you finally reached the stopping point?
• Was the light working properly (when did the officer observe it, what is the typical light cycle, etc.)?
• Did the officer have your vehicle in sight from the time he first saw you until the time he pulled you over?

These are just some of the basics. It will be your job (or your attorney’s) to listen closely, ask questions, review notes and find some argument that can be presented to the judge as a reason to dismiss the charge.

3. A Note on Camera Tickets

Camera tickets are a whole other thing. Our firm doesn’t handle these. Few lawyers do because there are no points or impact on one’s license or insurance. They are a pain and can be costly and may not always be issued fairly but they are significantly better to receive than the three-point, officer-issued moving violation version discussed above.

Red Light and Other Traffic Signals FAQs