Never got the ticket in the mail? It can still become a judgment — here's what to do

Two opposite situations get mixed up, and they have different fixes:

• You never received a ticket, but one may exist — a camera violation mailed to an old address, or a windshield ticket that blew away. The record exists; you just haven't seen it. This guide is for you.
• You have a ticket in hand, but it's not in the system yet — data entry can take days to weeks. That's covered in our not-showing-up guide, including how to protect your 30-day window while you wait.

• Windshield tickets get lost. An officer-issued summons is left on the vehicle — wind, rain, or another person can make it disappear. The city's copy still enters the record.
• Camera violations are mailed to the registered owner's address on file. Red light, school-zone speed, and bus lane Notices of Liability go to the DMV registration address — if you moved and didn't update the DMV, the notice went to your old address.
• Rentals and leased cars route through the company. The notice goes to the registrant (the rental or leasing company), which may forward it — or just bill you — weeks later.

Nothing good — the timeline runs on its own:

• ~30 days after issuance: late penalties begin stacking on an unanswered ticket.
• ~100 days after issuance: the ticket enters default judgment — per the official dispute page — adding interest and exposing the car to booting and towing once judgment debt reaches $350.
• After 1 year in judgment: the city states you can no longer get a hearing on the ticket at all.

"I never received it" does not pause any of this by itself — but it can be grounds to undo a judgment later (below), which is why documenting things now helps.

• Check your plate against the public record — our free lookup shows every open ticket on the plate by summons number, issue date, and amount, with no login. This is the fastest way to learn whether a ticket exists at all.
• Get an official copy. The city lets you download a copy of a parking ticket — handheld-device tickets appear within ~5 business days, handwritten ones in 10–14. Camera violation copies are requested via 311 or email.
• If a ticket exists and is within 30 days: dispute or pay on your terms. Check the violation's historical dismissal rate first — disputing within 30 days freezes late penalties while the case is decided.
• Update your DMV address so the next notice actually reaches you — most "never got it" camera tickets trace back to a stale registration address.

You can ask the Department of Finance to vacate the default judgment and get the hearing you never had. Per the dispute page, the request generally must be made within one year of the judgment date, and you'll need to explain why you never responded — e.g., the notice went to a previous address, with proof of when you moved. If the judgment is vacated, the case returns to a normal hearing where all the usual defenses apply.

If the judgment stands, you still have damage-control options: a payment plan stops enforcement, and our unpaid-ticket guide walks through what enforcement actually looks like at each stage.