Default Penalty

A default penalty is the increased fine amount imposed when a respondent fails to respond to a violation summons or fails to appear at a scheduled hearing. Default penalties are the city's mechanism for discouraging non-response and ensuring that ignoring a ticket is always more expensive than addressing it — even if you lose at a hearing.

For DOF parking and camera violations, the default penalty is effectively the accumulation of all late penalty stages applied at once, followed by judgment entry. A $115 parking ticket in default jumps to $215+ before interest begins. For OATH violations, default penalties are far more severe: up to 5 times the original fine. A $350 idling violation that defaults becomes $1,750. OATH default penalties can sometimes be vacated if the respondent successfully argues that they had a valid reason for missing the hearing (such as never receiving the summons).

For fleet operators, default penalties represent the most expensive possible outcome for any violation — more expensive than losing at a hearing, and many times more expensive than simply paying the original fine. Every violation that goes unresponded wastes money. Clear Plates prevents defaults by tracking response deadlines and hearing dates across your entire fleet and alerting you before any violation lapses into default.