Photo by Chris Rief

Get a ticket recently? Contesting it? Found liable? Listen up, because new adjudication laws are now in effect and you’ll have a second chance to fight it.

Per the Department of Motor Vehicles, two new changes to the city’s adjudication laws, under the Traffic Adjudication Amendment Act of 2014, are now in affect. If you contest a parking ticket, photo enforcement ticket, or minor moving violation, and are held liable, you’ve got 30 days to submit a request reconsideration. Additionally, you need to include new evidence and/or documentation to support your case. If your liability is upheld after the final decision, you can appeal it, but request for reconsideration is required before you can file an appeal.

“By implementing the request for reconsideration process, customers have the opportunity to submit documentation that they may not have submitted initially,” d DC DMV Director Lucinda Babers said in a statement. “For example, customers often write letters stating that the vehicle on the ticket is not their vehicle; however, they do not submit a copy of their registration for the hearing examiner to view. Now, they will have 30 additional days to do so.”

If you fail to answer a ticket within 60 days and it’s deemed admission, you can still fight it by filing a Motion to Vacate. Customers “have 60 calendar days from when the deemed admission was entered to file a Motion to Vacate.”

More info on the new adjudication laws can be found here.