# Wrong license plate number on ticket: do I have to pay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2001, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrong-license-plate-number-on-ticket-do-i-have-to-pay/56817 "2001-03-05T14:42:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ned](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/848f3c/32.png) [@Ned](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ned)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2001, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrong-license-plate-number-on-ticket-do-i-have-to-pay/56817/21 "2001-03-06T02:27:55Z")
Just ignore it. You aren’t charged with an offense and they can’t prove they ticketed your car. Even if they went through the trouble of determining who should probably have gotten the ticket it wouldn’t be better than an educated guess. They would also have to reissue a ticket with the correct number. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2001, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrong-license-plate-number-on-ticket-do-i-have-to-pay/56817/22 "2001-03-06T03:05:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zev\_steinhardt \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by barbitu8 \* > > \*\*From a purely legal view, an inadvertent error on a ticket can be corrected. If you appear at the trial and plea the error, the court can, in its discretion, allow the citation to be amended and a new court date set. > > > > This doesn’t mean that it cannot also dismiss the case. In big cities with crowded dockets, the court may dismiss the ticket. BUT it doesn’t have to. \*\* > > Not in New York City. > > There are several errors that will result in an automatic dismissal. These are errors that describe the event (license plate of the car, date, time, location, etc.) If any of this information is missing, it MUST result in a dismissal. This is because the ticket IS the entire case against you. The traffic agent who wrote the ticket does not show up at your hearing. Since the entire case rests upon the ticket, if any vital data is missing, then the state has no case. > > A traffic ticket (for going through a red light, for example), however, will not result in an automatic dismissal if some vital info is missing. The reason for this is that the cop who wrote the ticket shows up in court and testifies against you. Therefore, the state’s case is based more on the cop’s testimony than on the ticket itself. > > Zev Steinhardt \*\* Do you have a citation for that? (No pun intended.) Strange that a moving violation citation will not be dismissed automatically if there be an error but a non-moving violation will. It is a general rule that any complaint can be amended. The citation is a complaint by the city against the driver or the owner of the vehicle (a parking ticket is against the owner). If there is an error, the city can ask the court to allow it to amend the citation, and then issue a new citation. You, of course, can have a new trial date set after the amendment. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2001, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrong-license-plate-number-on-ticket-do-i-have-to-pay/56817/23 "2001-03-06T08:01:20Z")
More anecdotal evidence, this from Washington State. My roommate once got a ticket for failing to dim his headlights. When he looked at the ticket later and was doing a little homework in preparation for his court appearance (he always fought everything), he discovered the cop had written down the wrong statute number. (Here in Washington, it’s the Revised Code, or RCW.) Instead of (making up numbers here) RCW 12.040.50, “failing to dim headlights,” the cop had written him a ticket naming RCW 12.040.70 as the code being violated. And what did that law cover? It was about regulating the height of additional illumination on tractor-trailer rigs, or something equally irrelevant. My friend went to court, provided a picture of what he was driving (a K-car, of all things) that showed the license plate so it could be verified against the ticket, and then pointed out the mis-cited statute. Clearly, he said, I don’t have a semi, so the law doesn’t even apply. The judge, he says, dismissed it immediately, without discussion or hesitation. Just made a note on something, and said, “It’s gone, goodbye.” The cop, my friend says, didn’t look happy about it. ---
**Author:** ![jdl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@jdl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jdl)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2001, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrong-license-plate-number-on-ticket-do-i-have-to-pay/56817/24 "2001-03-06T14:57:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\*“On the off chance that you come back to this thread, I would like to point out the fact that the cop > did not get the driver’s name kinda implies that he (the driver) didn’t sign any ticket.” > > Oh, yeah you are right. I reread the OP. That’s pretty strange, don’t you think? What cop wouldn’t ask for license, registration or insurance? I wonder what’ll happen to the person who has that plate number ? 🙂 \*\* Just to clear things up regarding the original post, the guy got the ticket while dropping off some folks at their office. He stopped on a busy street while has no stopping rules during rush hour. He was in the car during the offense and the cop handed him the ticket but NEVER asked for licence or registration - either because it would have taken too long (and the cop was himself stopped in the no stopping zone) or because it is not necessary to get that info for that kind of violation. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2001, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrong-license-plate-number-on-ticket-do-i-have-to-pay/56817/25 "2001-03-06T15:15:04Z")
" the cop had written down the wrong statute number." That happened to me once in California for a tailight out. I went to court & the court pointed it out. I had to find the cop at the station & ask him to change it to the right number then go back to the court showing I got my light to work. The whole thing took a long time. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2001, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrong-license-plate-number-on-ticket-do-i-have-to-pay/56817/26 "2001-03-06T15:34:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by barbitu8 \* > \*\* > > Do you have a citation for that? (No pun intended.) Strange that a moving violation citation will not be dismissed automatically if there be an error but a non-moving violation will. > > It is a general rule that any complaint can be amended. The citation is a complaint by the city against the driver or the owner of the vehicle (a parking ticket is against the owner). If there is an error, the city can ask the court to allow it to amend the citation, and then issue a new citation. You, of course, can have a new trial date set after the amendment. \*\* I, unfortunately, had to become something of an expert at fighting parking tickets in my (wild) youth. I read it in any number of books written for that purpose. I will, however, try to find a web cite (pun intended!) for you. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2001, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrong-license-plate-number-on-ticket-do-i-have-to-pay/56817/27 "2001-03-06T16:34:55Z")
I was on the other end of this - MY license tag number was written on someone else’s ticket - 6 months later, I get a summons. I had a note from my boss that I was 60 miles away on the day in question, but no proof that my CAR wasn’t the one ticketed (even tho Ihad to drive my car…) Anyway, it cost me a half day off work and whatever fine was imposed. I was going to fight it, but it would have cost a fortune, so I bitched about it for a while and got on with life. Stoopid Baltimore cops… ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wrong-license-plate-number-on-ticket-do-i-have-to-pay/56817.md?page=1)