fiarra | friends, i need some advice

So here's the deal. The parking office rejected my appeal to remove *only the late fee* on two $100 parking tickets (which would total $66 less dollars I have to pay). I am more than willing to pay the base ticket, but I don't think I should have to pay the late fee.

My reasoning:
I got a series of tickets in early October (my fault, I had parked my car in a spot I don't walk by and since I don't move my car during the week, I didn't catch them). That week, it rained several times so I had some tickets, but for all I knew, there was 1 missing or something. On the 26th, I logged into the online system and paid everything listed under my license plate number. Later that night, I logged in again to make sure everything was cleared and it looked like I was fine. Several weeks later, a letter shows up at my parents' house charging me late fees on tickets given the 7th and 8th of October.

I logged into the system again and discovered that these two tickets were indeed under my plate number, but they had not been before. I called the parking office to see what was up (and to ask to get rid of the late fee) and was told that they could see my payment on the 26th, but that the other two were added on the 28th. I should note that you have 21 days to pay a ticket; the 28th is 21 days after the 7th.

The lady over the phone told me to fill out an appeal online. I did. I got a letter today saying that it was rejected.

Is it worth it for me to set up a hearing? I legit will hand someone $200 cash to pay the full ticket, but I don't think the late fee is fair. What does a hearing even entail?

Halp? :|

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I say go for it. If you get the appeal, then awesome. If not, you're going to have to pay the same amount anyway, so it's no skin off your nose. Plus, I find that judges/etc are more sympathetic, sometimes, when they see you in person and hear your story in person as opposed to reading a paragraph off a screen.

I guess I might as well give it a try. I didn't get very much space to explain properly on the online form anyway. At least in person I can show receipts and such. Thanks! :)

This is my experience with traffic court: if you go, there's about a 60% that the cop who gave you the ticket won't even bother, in which case you would not actually have to pay. I think you should go and bring as much documentation as possible - if you have a payment record for the tickets you did pay, if you can get copies of the ones you missed, etc. Just as you're legally obligated to pay the tickets, the city is legally obligated to notify you within a reasonable time limit, which they failed to do - it is very probable that, given that, a reasonable judge would waive the late fee.

/lawyerspeak

I think I'm gonna give it a shot. I have my receipts from paying the other tickets, which should show that I would have paid the others if they had been in the system. And I have the original "you are late" letter.

Thanks for the advice! :D

Yeah, if you go in person, you stand a MUCH better chance to appeal to the judge. I got a red-light camera ticket earlier this year and they charged me a late fee...it was past my court date so I couldn't appear in person (I never got the letter in the mail that told me of the ticket/court date) but I wrote a heart-felt letter to the judge and he knocked it down from $285 (F*CKING RIDICULOUS) base ticket + $125 late fee to..........$215 TOTAL, in other words the nice judge took away the late fee and also knocked down the ticket price, as I'm told they are likely to do for people who actually show up & sound intelligent esp. w/ a fairly clean driving record. Go for it! :)

lol I've never had anything like this happen to me and my driving record is totally clean. It looks like if I just show up with all my documentation, I have a pretty good shot of at least having the late fee taken off.

(And that is totally awesome of that judge to lower the fee like that for you!)

friends, i need some advice

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My dad's a lawyer, so...

Re: My dad's a lawyer, so...

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