Parking ticket at Fort Carson

[smkat]

What is the name of your state? CO

I hope someone can help me with this... last week on Wednesday we had a huge snow storm, so bad that the base (Fort Carson) was closed down. On Thursday I returned to work on base and found that our buildings parking lot was closed for reconstruction. I parked in the lot next door in a line of cars. The lot was completely iced over and it was literally impossible to see the lines of the parking spots. During the day some of the ice melted and it was possible to see the lines again. I found this out when I left my office for the day and found a parking ticket on my windshield for "Improper Parking". Apparently the line of cars I parked in weren't actually in spaces, but I couldn't tell that in the morning. Once the ice melted and all the other cars left (I work the last shift) it was apparent I wasn't in a spot, but I really had know way of knowing.

So now I have a parking ticket and I don't know what to do. It's for $40, and that's a lot of money to my family. There was no court date listed on the ticket, it only said it would be sent to me in the mail (how do they get the address?). Is this something I can feasibly fight? Or I am pretty much screwed on it? And if so, how long do you normally have to pay a ticket? It doesn't give me any dates or anything. It will take me a while to scrape together $40.

[seniorjudge]

Although I cannot offer you a whole lot of hope, I'd say fight it and base your defense on impossibility (meaning you couldn't see where to park).

[Zigner]

I'd suggest you start scraping. Whether you would "win" or not isn't really important. If you can't come up with $40, how could you miss time from work to fight it?

[smkat]

I earn PTO so taking a day off isn't going to cost me any money... losing $40 could literally mean I don't have gas money to get to work for a few days.

If I do chose to go to the court hearing about it, how will I find out about the court date? Since I wasn't there when the ticket was written I didn't give anyone my address.

[seniorjudge]

Originally Posted by smkat

I earn PTO so taking a day off isn't going to cost me any money... losing $40 could literally mean I don't have gas money to get to work for a few days.

If I do chose to go to the court hearing about it, how will I find out about the court date? Since I wasn't there when the ticket was written I didn't give anyone my address.

Call the court asap to find out the date and time; it is up to you to find out this info.