Protesting a Parking Violation SF, California

In the russian hill district of San Francisco CA my car was towed for allegedly blocking a person's driveway.

The vehicle was parked between two driveways. At the tip of the vehicle was a 6 inch red curb, which I made sure that I was right against, but not in. I know this for sure because I got out of my vehicle to make sure that I would not get towed. At the same time, I made certain that my back bumper was not in the driveway behind it. The available parking area between that red curb and the point before the curbed curved downwards into the driveway behind the vehicle was sixteen feet exactly. My vehicles length, according to the owner’s manual is 174.7 inches, or 14.56 feet. This leaves 1.44 feet between the back of my vehicle and the driveway in question. This is also the amount of feet that needed to be between my vehicle and the red curb for my vehicle to be legally towed. To put things in perspective, 1.44 feet is relatively the size of a standard bed pillow.

My question is on the general proceedings of these cases. Does the traffic officer which gave me the citation need to be at the hearing? Do I need to prove that my car was not in the driveway or do they need to prove that my car was in the driveay?

I've been trying to get in touch with the officer, but the Department of Parking and Traffic will not give out such information. Does anyone know how to get that information?

Thanks for any help you can give

The City of San Francisco has a procedure for protesting the parking citation. Chances are they will not put you in touch with the issuing officer, and there is no obligation for them to do so - and if they did, certainly nothing to say she has to call you back.

If you want to contest the cite, then go forard with it. And, depending in city rules, the issuing officer may not have to be at the hearing at all. Most CA cities that I know of don't require it.

- Carl

Generally if the officer dont show up its alot easier case though o0.

Parking cites in CA are not court affairs - they are done administratively. In fact, they are generally done in writing. I have never had to show for a parking cite hearing ... it isn't worth it for the city to pay someone (like a police officer) overtime to show up for a parking ticket that is worth less than the overtime or even the salary he/she would receive just for being there.

There may be some agencies and parking authorities that have their officers come in, but I don't know of any that do it for any but a few cases.

- Carl

Contest it, in person if possible. Bring the owners manual showing the car's length, as well as photos of the space where it was parked, and make sure they have some sort of reference in them to show how large the space was. Even if they don't believe you, they'll be impressed at your preparation

Does anyone know how the DPT judges the outcome of the ruling by? For instance, if i provide reasonable doubt that I didn't park in the person's drive way, will that be enough? Or, is it more of a 50/50 thing, where I have to provide more than 50%'s worth of evidence to get a refund on my money?