eleonardou
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Los Angeles, CA
I was wondering if you could give me some guidance on the following issue, as I do not know whom to turn to.
I got a Parking Ticket in the City of Los Angeles. I contested it and submitted photos as proof that the sign was hidden behind plantation.
In their written correspondence, they are claiming that the parking sign was "sufficiently clear and visible" although, when I spoke to them on the phone, the agent read to me the notes of the person who had gone on site to investigate and he admitted that according to those notes the parking sign was hidden, but there were other signs on that street further down...
Since they rejected my contest, my next available option was to request a hearing. However, they rejected both my legal right to request a hearing AND they illegally tripled the amount of the fine, because they said I didn't submit the hearing request within the 21-days period.
I submitted proof, my boarding passes, that I was out of the country during those 21 days. I had told them in advance when I contested the ticket, that by the time they will send me their answer I was going to be abroad. They told me I would have no problem, if I can prove my absence.
There are tons of complaints online about the corruption of the City of Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau, cases far more absurd than mine.
I called them two months later to find out what had happened with my request and it was proven that they still had not reviewed the boarding passes I had mailed them. Therefore, I was still not even allowed to request a hearing, because it should first be proven that I was indeed out of the country during those 21 days.
The agent on the phone said she would make a note for those boarding passes to be reviewed and they would get back to me in two weeks. Well, guess what? In two weeks I got one more letter in the mail that the ticket is still valid. Its price was still double. They completely ignored the boarding passes and the fact that I was abroad and that I could have neither paid the ticket nor requested a hearing within their timeline.
Needless to say, they gave me no answer as to a Hearing Date.
At this point the ticket has tripled and sent out to a collection agency. It was $68 and now it's $185.
And no, I am not going to pay a single dime, without having practiced first my legal right to a hearing and to an appeal if needed. I read somewhere that one should first pay the fine and then try to fight it. This whole system is obviously so corrupted that if I pay it, I'm never gonna get my money back. Plus, I am unemployed. Together with my request for the hearing, I also mailed the Financial Disclosure Statement, which is needed in order for them to waive the fee for the hearing, according to their instructions. I also included my Tax Return. But as they told me on the phone it seems that they hadn't even reached to that point, since the first thing that was in question was the fact that I did not submit the info within the 21 days.
It is evident to me at this point, that the Parking Violations Bureau is fraudulently ignoring my lawful right to a hearing, because it will be openly revealed that they have purposefully been allowing the existence of obscured parking signs, in order to collect more money to make up for the constantly decreasing income of the City.
I don't know what authority to turn to. Please give me some guidance, as to whom I can report this. I am determined to fight this to the end and I have plenty of time at this point. It's not a matter of money loss, but a matter of principle. I've had two other parking tickets in the past, they were absolutely justified and I paid them without second thought. Not only is this one unjustified, it's also their mischievous handling thereafter that strikes me as the most unacceptable and against everything I had expected to find in this country. I come from a foreign land, where corruption and anarchy are an everyday routine. The discipline and justice that I initially experienced in the US were like a breath of fresh air. What a disillusionment...
I was wondering if you could give me some guidance on the following issue, as I do not know whom to turn to.
I got a Parking Ticket in the City of Los Angeles. I contested it and submitted photos as proof that the sign was hidden behind plantation.
In their written correspondence, they are claiming that the parking sign was "sufficiently clear and visible" although, when I spoke to them on the phone, the agent read to me the notes of the person who had gone on site to investigate and he admitted that according to those notes the parking sign was hidden, but there were other signs on that street further down...
Since they rejected my contest, my next available option was to request a hearing. However, they rejected both my legal right to request a hearing AND they illegally tripled the amount of the fine, because they said I didn't submit the hearing request within the 21-days period.
I submitted proof, my boarding passes, that I was out of the country during those 21 days. I had told them in advance when I contested the ticket, that by the time they will send me their answer I was going to be abroad. They told me I would have no problem, if I can prove my absence.
There are tons of complaints online about the corruption of the City of Los Angeles Parking Violations Bureau, cases far more absurd than mine.
I called them two months later to find out what had happened with my request and it was proven that they still had not reviewed the boarding passes I had mailed them. Therefore, I was still not even allowed to request a hearing, because it should first be proven that I was indeed out of the country during those 21 days.
The agent on the phone said she would make a note for those boarding passes to be reviewed and they would get back to me in two weeks. Well, guess what? In two weeks I got one more letter in the mail that the ticket is still valid. Its price was still double. They completely ignored the boarding passes and the fact that I was abroad and that I could have neither paid the ticket nor requested a hearing within their timeline.
Needless to say, they gave me no answer as to a Hearing Date.
At this point the ticket has tripled and sent out to a collection agency. It was $68 and now it's $185.
And no, I am not going to pay a single dime, without having practiced first my legal right to a hearing and to an appeal if needed. I read somewhere that one should first pay the fine and then try to fight it. This whole system is obviously so corrupted that if I pay it, I'm never gonna get my money back. Plus, I am unemployed. Together with my request for the hearing, I also mailed the Financial Disclosure Statement, which is needed in order for them to waive the fee for the hearing, according to their instructions. I also included my Tax Return. But as they told me on the phone it seems that they hadn't even reached to that point, since the first thing that was in question was the fact that I did not submit the info within the 21 days.
It is evident to me at this point, that the Parking Violations Bureau is fraudulently ignoring my lawful right to a hearing, because it will be openly revealed that they have purposefully been allowing the existence of obscured parking signs, in order to collect more money to make up for the constantly decreasing income of the City.
I don't know what authority to turn to. Please give me some guidance, as to whom I can report this. I am determined to fight this to the end and I have plenty of time at this point. It's not a matter of money loss, but a matter of principle. I've had two other parking tickets in the past, they were absolutely justified and I paid them without second thought. Not only is this one unjustified, it's also their mischievous handling thereafter that strikes me as the most unacceptable and against everything I had expected to find in this country. I come from a foreign land, where corruption and anarchy are an everyday routine. The discipline and justice that I initially experienced in the US were like a breath of fresh air. What a disillusionment...
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