If you’ve ever called my office, it’s one of the first questions you hear:
“What is your ticket number?”
There’s a reason we ask. The ticket number is a unique identifier. Your ticket number has never been used before, and won’t be used again (not in TVB courts, anyway). Once we locate your ticket number, we have all the info we’ll need to defend you.
But diving deeper, what does the ticket number itself mean?
Click this link to take a deep dive into traffic lawyer dorkiness…
Warning: traffic lawyer dorkiness ahead…
A current NYC Traffic Violations Bureau ticket number has ten digits. There’s a combination of numbers and letters. Every letter is used except “o.” If you think there’s an “o” in your ticket number, it’s actually a zero.
Old School
Very old ticket numbers are just numbers, no letters. But these haven’t been issued in at least 15 years. If you have an outstanding ticket from the ‘90s that is somehow still open, it’s just 10 numbers.
The A Series
At some point in the 2000’s, the TVB began to issue “A series” tickets. These ticket numbers begin with the letter “A” and have three letters, followed by seven numbers. The first “A” series tickets were “AAA,” then “AAB,” “AAC” and so forth.
You can hazard a pretty good guess as to when your ticket was issued based on where it falls in the A series. AAN tickets were issued around 2010. AAT, 2013 or so. ABA, circa 2017.
And if you got an A series ticket this year, it was either ABE or ABF.
An “A series” ticket looks like what you grew up thinking a traffic ticket looks like. It’s yellow and handwritten. The copy you as the motorist receive is one of three. The cop keeps one, and the third is sent upstream to the DMV in Albany.
The B Series
In the late 2010’s, the NYPD went electronic. Traffic tickets were entered electronically by police officer in their RMP’s (squad cars). Out with the yellow, handwritten tickets of yore. In with the “B series” tickets, entirely computer generated, including the officer’s signature.
It’s easy to know when a “B series” ticket was issued. It’s right there in the ticket number.
If the ticket starts with B19, it was issued in 2019.
If it starts with B20, it was issued in 2020.
So, as you can probably guess, if you received an electronic Traffic Violations Bureau ticket this year, it began with B24.
The B series tickets are easier to read and understand. But the computer system can be glitchy, and they occasionally contain mistakes that a good judge may decide make the ticket defective.
Is that all? Nope!
Not all tickets issued in NYC are written by NYPD officers. Some are issued by other agencies.
If your ticket begins with a series of numbers (usually 12), it’s written by a bridge cop, most often affiliated with the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority.
If your ticket begins with 3M or MM, it was written by a New York state trooper. Troopers issue the vast majority of their tickets upstate, but they do have jurisdiction in New York City. For reasons unknown to me, trooper tickets are always returnable to one of three TVB courts — Queens South, Manhattan North, and Staten Island.