Parking violation

[JRELENA]

What is the name of your state? CA

Of all days, I was issued a parking violation on Friday the 13th for parking on the wrong side of the street. The license, make and color of my car were correct as well as the street name, but the house number was not. I researched my city's website and found that the house number does not exist. Even if the issuing officer wrote down an invalid address, should I still pay the ticket or contest it?

 

[The Occultist]

Officers are generally given some leniency on information put on the ticket. This is to make sure murderers don't get off because of a simple clerical error.

Anywho, I don't see how house number is relevant to the violation. If the officer recorded what car you had perfectly, and correctly put down which street the violation was occurring on, I don't see how the house number matters. Of course, this would be Carl's domain, so we should just wait to see what he says.

 

[BelizeBreeze]

What is the name of your state? CA

Of all days, I was issued a parking violation on Friday the 13th for parking on the wrong side of the street. The license, make and color of my car were correct as well as the street name, but the house number was not. I researched my city's website and found that the house number does not exist. Even if the issuing officer wrote down an invalid address, should I still pay the ticket or contest it?

You can do either. However, your strategy, as revealed here, will fail. So, the decision is do you want to pay the parking fine, or the parking fine, court costs and any other associated fees?

 

[racer72]

Police often use a generalized address to provide a location and it is perfectly legal, they do not have to provide a valid address. An example would be a car illegally parked at 2435 Main Street which could be in the middle of the block, the office could use just about any numbers, ie, 2400 to 2499, to show the vehicle was parked on the 2400 block of Main Street. The fact that the address number given is not a valid address is irrelevent.

 

[CdwJava]

I agree - the exact address is a non-issue. The hundred block might be important, but the specific residence it was parked in front of is of little consequence. This is why most of us write only the hundred block, and not the specific address. I might put the specific address in the notes, but it's not on the "location" of the parking cite.

In any event, your easiest course of action is to pay the parking cite and move on. Or, you can pay the cite up front and then contest the citation to the parking authority and see if they somehow give you a break (not likely, but stranger things have happened). For me, I would prefer not to waste a day wandering downtown and sitting around city hall for a matter I'm likely to lose - but that's me.

- Carl