You get at least 15 days. The date on the summons is your deadline
Your summons has to give you a hearing date, or tell you how to book one. That date has to be at least 15 days after you were served (§ 6-08(c)(5)). You can give that up and ask for an earlier date if you want it over with.
There is no separate deadline to "answer." Responding means one of three things. Admit it and pay. Move the date. Or fight it, using one of the ways below. All of that has to happen on or before the date printed on your summons.
Paying is pleading guilty
This is the most expensive mistake people make. Paying the fine before the hearing counts as admitting it (§ 6-09(e)). You give up your hearing and your right to appeal at the same time.
Maybe the violation could have been fixed instead of paid. Maybe the inspector got the facts wrong. Maybe it was served on the wrong person. Paying ends all of that. Find out what your summons is worth before you pay it.
Four ways to be heard
| Method | Deadline | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| By phone | Request at least 3 business days and not more than 1 month before | You must call in within 3 hours of your scheduled time (§ 6-09(c), § 6-10(d)) |
| In person | Email OATH at least 5 business days before | § 6-09(b)(2). The agency's representative still appears by phone |
| Online | On or before the hearing date | § 6-10(c). Only your first submission counts, so write it properly |
| By mail | Arrives before the hearing date, or postmarked before it | § 6-10(b)(1). Has to be notarized or sworn. No community service option |
A rule almost nobody knows. If you mailed your defence and it was postmarked before the hearing date, but it arrives after they already marked you as a no-show, that no-show is cancelled (§ 6-10(b)(1)).
What not showing up really costs
Miss the hearing, or turn up more than three hours late, and you lose by default (§ 6-09(f), § 6-20(a)). Then everything written on the summons is treated as true. There is no hearing, and the decision takes effect right away (§ 6-20(b)–(c)).
The price is the highest fine the law allows for that violation. Some agencies write their own no-show numbers into their rules, and those are harsh. An unlicensed cannabis summons costs a flat $10,000 if you don't show up.
You can undo it. Inside 75 days they have to say yes
This is the most useful rule on this page. Your first request to undo a no-show, filed within 75 days of the day that decision was mailed or handed to you, will be granted (§ 6-21(b)). You do not have to give a reason. If you mail it, it has to be postmarked inside the 75 days.
- After 75 days: you get up to one year. Now you have to show a good reason, with documents to back it up (§ 6-21(c)).
- After a year: only the Chief Administrative Law Judge, and only in unusual circumstances (§ 6-21(e)(3)).
- Miss it twice on the same summons and it is over. No more requests, no appeal (§ 6-21(e)(1)).
If it is a TLC summons, you get two years, not one.
The list above is the general rule. TLC cases run on their own track. There, § 5-03 gives you two years from the date the decision was entered to ask for it back. Section 6-21 says so itself: "except as otherwise stated in § 5-03 of this Title."
This catches people out. A driver eleven months past a no-show reads the one-year rule and thinks it is nearly gone. On the TLC track there is a second year. Speed still matters, because inside 75 days a first request is granted with no reason needed. But being past a year is not the end of it.
It applies to every TLC summons, including the ones written at JFK and LaGuardia by Port Authority police.
What counts as a good reason is listed in § 6-21(d). Whether you were properly served. Whether you were even the right person. Medical emergencies. Things outside your control. And this one matters: whether you kept your current address on file with the licensing agency. That is why drivers and licence holders lose cases they never heard about.
Separately, once the city tells you it plans to enter a judgment, you have 30 days from that letter to ask them to hold off and give you a hearing.
Appeals: 30 days, and you have to pay first
- The deadline is 30 days from the decision, or 35 if it came by mail (§ 6-19).
- You have to pay the fine in full first. Unless you get a hardship waiver, chose community service, or Finance put you on a payment plan. Applying for hardship does not give you more time.
- You cannot appeal a no-show decision, a refusal to undo one, or a plea where you admitted it (§ 6-19(a)(4)). Undo the no-show first.
- They only look at the record. No new evidence, except for solid government documents like a death certificate or a deed. They can uphold it, reverse it, send it back, or change it.
Fixing a violation instead of paying for it
OATH does not run these programs. The agency that wrote your summons does. Where one exists, fixing the problem and proving it in time can wipe out the fine.
Go by the deadline printed on your summons or in the settlement offer. It is not available on every violation.
Two are well documented. The Fire Department runs one with a way to check that your fix was processed before the deadline. Buildings lets you fix the problem and file a Certificate of Correction through DOB NOW, any time after the summons is issued. The exception is where the summons says you lied on an earlier certificate.
What it costs if you do nothing
- Fines are due 30 days from the decision, 35 if mailed (§ 6-18).
- Hearing Officers cannot lower a fine. The amounts are set by law.
- The Department of Finance collects. Unpaid fines go to a collection agency and to Civil Court.
- A final order is a judgment. They can enforce it without going back to court. It caps at $25,000 per person, and it lasts 8 years.
- Agencies can refuse to renew your licence, suspend it, or take it away over unpaid OATH fines. If you work on a licence, that is the real consequence.
Free help most people never use
- Interpreters, free. You get language help, including someone interpreting the hearing (§ 6-03). The Hearing Officer has to tell you it is available at the start of every hearing (§ 6-11(b)). OATH also translates online hearing forms, mailed defence letters and motion forms sent in other languages, at no charge.
- Your immigration status is protected. It cannot be used as evidence unless the Hearing Officer reviews it privately and decides it genuinely matters and is not meant to harass you. Threatening to reveal someone's immigration status is misconduct (§ 6-12(c), § 6-25(a)(16)).
- The Help Center. Free legal information for people without a lawyer or a paid representative. But you have to book before the day of your hearing.
- Community service instead of a fine on certain violations, if you are a person and not a business. Up to 7 hours for a fine of $300 or less, no fee. Not available if you do your hearing by mail.
Three more rules worth knowing
- A sworn summons proves itself. The agency has to prove its case, but a properly sworn summons counts as evidence of what is written on it (§ 6-12(a)–(b)). Turning up and saying "that's not true" is not a defence. You have to answer what the inspector actually wrote.
- You get one reschedule, no reason needed. But they have to receive the request before the hearing (§ 6-05). Once you have moved it once, that option is gone.
- You can ask to see their evidence. Ask in writing at least 5 business days before the hearing, and you are entitled to the agency's witness list and the documents it plans to use (§ 6-07).
Where we fit
Anyone appearing for two or more people in a year has to be registered with OATH, and has to file a signed authorization from each one (§ 6-23, § 6-16). We are registered. That authorization is the form on our authorization page. You sign it on your phone and we go instead of you.