Parking Ticket issued during unfair circumstances

[edwardw818]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

I cut through THICK fog (pic below) driving 3 passengers going to The Forum in Inglewood, CA (I’ve NEVER been there); heading East down Manchester Blvd., I try to pull into the parking lot, security diverts me to Kareem Ct; I can barely see where I’m going. There’s no signage (that I’m aware of) telling people there’s no stopping or where to drop people off.
To my right, there’s an entrance that I barely even saw and a passenger even had to point it out to her friends. All of a sudden, they all hop out... In front of that entrance where there’s also a bunch of parking enforcement; just my luck.
Instead of walking over and handing me a ticket or even responding to my questions, she stands in front of my car, and then I see a long scroll of paper from a handheld device get longer and walks out of the way.
1. Is this even legal? Aren’t in-person tickets supposed to be signed and parking tickets be placed on the car (e.g. windshield)?
2. I was not parked or technically blocking traffic; there were no cars behind me and there was a long line of cars in front of me, with NO explicit drop-off point. Does that still constitute some sort of violation?
3. How can I fight this ticket?
I’m VERY confused. Thanks for your help.

P.S.: I am sure this has been posted and I did try to attach pictures, but it needs "moderator approval". As this is the only day off I have and don't have time to wait until that thread is approved, please ask me to PM pictures of how bad the visibility was. If this thread turns out to be a duplicate, please merge the 2. Thank you.

 

[STEPHAN]

If the visibility was so bad that you could not even see the signs, you should not have been driving at all.

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

I cut through THICK fog (pic below) driving 3 passengers going to The Forum in Inglewood, CA (I’ve NEVER been there); heading East down Manchester Blvd., I try to pull into the parking lot, security diverts me to Kareem Ct; I can barely see where I’m going. There’s no signage (that I’m aware of) telling people there’s no stopping or where to drop people off.
To my right, there’s an entrance that I barely even saw and a passenger even had to point it out to her friends. All of a sudden, they all hop out... In front of that entrance where there’s also a bunch of parking enforcement; just my luck.
Instead of walking over and handing me a ticket or even responding to my questions, she stands in front of my car, and then I see a long scroll of paper from a handheld device get longer and walks out of the way.
1. Is this even legal? Aren’t in-person tickets supposed to be signed and parking tickets be placed on the car (e.g. windshield)?
2. I was not parked or technically blocking traffic; there were no cars behind me and there was a long line of cars in front of me, with NO explicit drop-off point. Does that still constitute some sort of violation?
3. How can I fight this ticket?
I’m VERY confused. Thanks for your help.

P.S.: I am sure this has been posted and I did try to attach pictures, but it needs "moderator approval". As this is the only day off I have and don't have time to wait until that thread is approved, please ask me to PM pictures of how bad the visibility was. If this thread turns out to be a duplicate, please merge the 2. Thank you.

Stephan makes a very valid point. Trying to mount a defense based on visibility being so bad is not likely to work in your favor.

To the questions:

1. Yep it's legal.
2. Yep, it can.
3. You do what every other ticketed driver does. Show up in court plead your case.

 

[Zigner]

What were you actually cited for?

 

[CdwJava]

Before we can offer any opinion, we have to know what the citation was for.

 

[edwardw818]

Inglewood Municipal Code 3414E: Signs or painted curb (except blue/red). I thought it was included, but I was copying/pasting from another forum when it was just the part where she jot down my license plate.

Stephan makes a very valid point. Trying to mount a defense based on visibility being so bad is not likely to work in your favor.

OK sir or madam. I should be asleep by now and I was hoping to worry about this on the next day off, but I'm making an exception. Why?

At the start of the year, we both had high-paying jobs, but I got let go 5 months ago and found something lower paying... But also since my wife got laid off 3 weeks ago and is in between jobs, I'm having to take my prized PERSONAL, almost-paid-off, near-mint condition '08 BMW 5-series (not some leased Prius dedicated to Uber, but even then I'm probably selling it for an SUV or van or something for my future son/daughter) and drive around complete strangers from all walks of life and varying degrees of sobriety (praying they don't yak in the car) via Uber to make ends meet during any day off I have or even if I'm not tired getting off work... ON TOP OF working a formerly 40-hour week job with enough to put nearly $1,000 in savings+IRA per month that had to become 10 hours a day, 6 hours a week (60 hour week) nearly paycheck-to-paycheck just to make sure we can make mortgage and feed her, the baby living inside her body for the past 2 months that I'd rather work harder for than to abort+wait until we can afford him/her (too young to figure out its gender), plus bills, and maybe feed myself whatever's left over (on the plus side I've lost 7 lbs), all the while praying that I can find a higher-paying job to support my future family without touching our savings, or at least finally find someone who is willing to rent out the room that was my office (but oh well)... Sorry if I'm being stern to you and perhaps if I wasn't so stressed out, fatigued and hangry;

Anyway, I picked the passengers up in Downtown LA where there was not even fog in the skies, to drop them off in Inglewood with fog that started to pop up out of the blue which what I was hoping to demonstrate the severity with the pictures where I can't see my car from 60 feet away or even a building up the street that even had lights on... Anyway, these guys also jumped out, so it's not my fault per se that they did what they did, so I don't see why I should pay for someone else's lapse of judgment, even if it's just $55, especially since I've never seen a ticket get issued this way before.

Also I looked in Google Street view, and the only sign that seems to be there is street sweeping instructions and the address on the citation is nonexistent (3800 Pincay Dr... There is not a single building on that block named Pincay). I'd have to drive out there to be sure.

 

[CdwJava]

It's a parking ticket, it's not the end of the world. You can contest it using the procedures provided by the agency and, if you do not like the results, you can take your chances with a court (and pay the additional fee if you lose).

Also, yeah, there is a 3800 block of Pincay Dr. - at least there is according to Google.

 

[edwardw818]

1. The point is, I'm emphasizing that instead of logging 90 hours of work (that's 60 hours at a job + roughly 30 hours of Uber) a week instead of collecting welfare/food stamps/whatever and being a burden to taxpayers since I wrote checks to Uncle Sam on April 15th for the past several years, instead of getting a refund (that I haven't seen since I was 25), I could easily not stress myself out driving people all night and getting a ticket as the result of a passenger's actions and be at home with my wife and future baby.

2. I don't see how my current car makes it any different from saying "I'm driving an uncomfortable, beaten up Kia Rio" (this is especially since I have been rear-ended by a drunk driver and my back+neck is screwed up [literally with titanium plates, and part of why I chose Uber is to keep at least 1-2 drunk drivers off the road since I don't want anybody else to experience my pain] and I wouldn't take any other car for being behind the wheel 3-10 hours per day since I specifically bought a luxury car for its seats, or I'd be happy with a Camry) or "I leased a car specifically to do Uber"; I'm saying that because whatever happens to my car on the job means I'd have to put up with it off the job and commute to my day job in a puke-tarnished car, versus a car I don't care about being the problem of a leasing company and just trade it in if it smells with no hard feelings... But the bad part is I don't meet the criteria for a rideshare leased car (I am required to do 40 hours per week and I can only do 30, plus bad credit from missing work due to that accident and not being able to pay bills), nor can I realistically spare the expenses involved in a 2nd car.

My life is hard enough as it is, and I wanted concrete ideas on how to beat this parking ticket.

That ticket is 3 hours of work at my job or about 4-10 Uber passengers (depending on distance), and I'd rather donate that amount to charity, put it into our child's future, make myself a fuller meal while on the road... Instead of having it torn out of my hands for a reason that is completely ludicrous.

 

[edwardw818]

It's a parking ticket, it's not the end of the world. You can contest it using the procedures provided by the agency and, if you do not like the results, you can take your chances with a court (and pay the additional fee if you lose).

Also, yeah, there is a 3800 block of Pincay Dr. - at least there is according to Google.

But doesn't it have to be linked to a concrete address? Also not to mention my car never even proverbially set foot on Pincay Dr.

 

[Zigner]

That ticket is 3 hours of work at my job or about 4-10 Uber passengers (depending on distance)...

Then the answer is simple. Pay the ticket and be done with it. If you fight it, you're going to spend more time than that, and you could still potentially lose.