hearing officer discretionUnited States · Massachusetts (Statewide)Difficulty: Easy
First-Time / Good Driver Mitigation
Massachusetts parking clerks have discretion under municipal regulations to reduce or dismiss citations for first-time offenders, particularly where the driver has demonstrably no prior record in that municipality and a sympathetic narrative (medical emergency, brief stop, mistake about hours).
Legal basis
MGL c.90 §20A½ (clerk's adjudicatory discretion)
Sample appeal wording
Office of the Parking Clerk Re: Citation #[TICKET] I respectfully request mitigation of this citation as a first-time offence. [BRIEF NARRATIVE — e.g., I was running a brief errand for an elderly relative and misread the meter hours / I was unaware of the street-cleaning schedule / pharmacy emergency]. I have no prior parking violations in [CITY]. If full dismissal is not granted, I respectfully request reduction to the minimum amount. [NAME]
Replace [PARKING DATE], [NtK DATE] etc. with your own dates before sending.
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Scan my ticketSources
- MGL c.90 §20A½
- Boston Parking Clerk practice