If you’ve ever lived in a crowded city, chances are you’re familiar with the experience of running out to your car and seeing that dreaded slip on paper waiting on the windshield. Your meter expired 5 minutes ago, you didn’t move your car for street cleaning, or you were never allowed to park there in the first place. Regardless of the cause, receiving a parking ticket is a frustrating experience.
On occasion, however, there are ways we can fight these tickets and avoid paying them. Below, you’ll find a story that one man recently shared on the Petty Revenge subreddit, detailing how he expertly managed to get out of a parking ticket in the 90s.
Parking tickets are extremely easy to rack up in certain cities
Image credits: Bradley Gordon (not the actual photo)
But after this man realized that no one could explain why he got a ticket, he decided to fight the citation in court
Image credits: LightFieldStudios (not the actual photo)
Image credits: que_he_hecho
Some cities manage to hand out hundreds of thousands of parking tickets each year
I’m not proud to admit it, pandas, but I’m very familiar with the experience of getting a parking ticket. I used to live in Los Angeles, and there are infinite ways and places where one can rack up parking tickets there. Without reading every single sign in great detail, you can easily leave your car for 10 minutes and return to the news of a hefty fine. When in doubt, always put extra money in the meter or just park somewhere else! Unfortunately, these fines can be extremely expensive, as I remember paying about $73 every time I got caught somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be in Los Angeles.
According to the Urban Institute, tickets in Austin typically cost about $35, while a ticket in Minneapolis or Portland can be around $80.Many people fall victim to the dreaded parking ticket each year as well, with over 468,000 being handed out in Portland between 2018-2019 and 430,000 in Minneapolis, the Urban Institute reports. Certain areas of Minneapolis charged millions of dollars worth of fines between 2018-2019, so why are so many people getting ticketed? Some of the most common reasons for receiving a parking ticket are parking in a loading zone, staying past the amount of time you paid for in a meter or space, parking somewhere without paying, not having a valid permit for where you’re parked, failing to correctly park within the lines, parking in a disabled spot, parking in a bus stop, and failing to move your vehicle during designated street cleaning hours.
Fortunately for drivers, it can sometimes be worth it to fight these fines
Image credits: Pacific Southwest Forest Service (not the actual photo)
While most people probably are actually guilty of violating some sort of parking rule when they receive a ticket, not everyone is. And sometimes, it’s worth it to fight a parking ticket to avoid paying that pesky, and sometimes exorbitant, fine. According to FindLaw, there are some tips and tricks that might increase your chances of successfully disputing a ticket. First, examine your ticket carefully. If any of the details are incorrect, that could be a possible loophole. Your license plate number, the date and time of the ticketing, the offense you’ve been cited for, etc. Take photos of your car and where it is as soon as you receive the ticket to ensure that you’ll have these details available in the future.
It’s also important to understand your local laws thoroughly. “For example, some parking statutes require that the car be left unoccupied at a red-painted curb or in front of a fire hydrant in order to be ticketed,” FindLaw explains. “If you were in the vehicle, that might be a way to get out of the ticket.” If you go to court, make sure that you have evidence to present. If the signs where you parked are difficult to see or read and you truly did not realize that you had parked illegally, it might help your case to have photos of those signs. Another tactic that FindLaw recommends is choosing an inconvenient court date. If the officer who cited your ticket fails to show up in court, the ticket will automatically be thrown out.
Even an attempt to dispute a parking ticket may lead to a reduction in the fee
Image credits: Charleston’s TheDigitel (not the actual photo)
And finally, it sometimes helps just to put in the effort of disputing the ticket. “Fighting parking tickets is often more a test of endurance than a test of legal knowledge,” FindLaw explains. “If you go through the whole procedural rigmarole — writing and mailing the complaint, showing up in court and so forth — you may find yourself being rewarded for fighting it to the bitter end. At the very least, it’s likely your ticket amount will be reduced.”
If any of you receive a parking ticket any time soon, pandas, I’m not encouraging you to automatically fight back, especially if you did happen to deserve it. But this story is a refreshing reminder that we’re not always doomed to having to pay exorbitant fines just because we don’t understand how to fight them. We would love to hear your thoughts on this story in the comments below, and if you’ve ever disputed a ticket of your own, feel free to share your personal experiences as well. Then, if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article featuring parking drama, look no further than right here!
Many readers applauded the man for his beautiful act of petty revenge
While others pointed out that they weren’t amused by the comments about his age
Bored Panda has reached out to the OP and will update this article as soon as we hear back.
The post "Don't Want To Tell Me What That Parking Ticket Is For? Ok": Guy Shares How He Proved The Parking Tickets The City Writes Are Wrong first appeared on Bored Panda.
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