Guides
You arrived while it was still there: the drop rule
If you reach your car before it leaves, many states cap what the release costs — or ban the tow from proceeding at all. The rule, state by state.
You round the corner and your car is on the hook but still on the street. That moment has a name — the drop — and the law prices it. Texas caps the drop fee at $135. New York City sets it at $62.50. California and Florida cap it at half the regular tow charge (Florida also gives you at least 15 minutes to arrange payment). Illinois goes furthest: if you arrive before the removal is complete and can move the car, the tow may not proceed at all.
The drop is where towers improvise, because it happens fast and nobody is calm. Slow it down with one sentence: “What is the published drop fee here?” Then photograph the scene — the car, the truck, the hook — before anything moves.
If the drop was refused outright, that refusal is a verdict class of its own in the checker: release rights violated, independent of every dollar on the bill.
Check your drop: run the checker.