City Hall loses

[bovlb]

Earlier, I described my attempt to fight a parking ticket. Today I got a letter saying:
Based on the credible testimony and credible evidence presented by appellant the prima facie is not established. Photo evidence presented by appellant shows compliance with CVC 5204(a) and EMC 14.40.015. It is recommended that the above citation be dismissed

Comments

[mijopo]

Congratulations, that's an encouraging result.

[thornshar]

Last time I saw a study on it, most people who fight parking tickets with any sort of evidence (which it sounds like you had) will succeed. This is no doubt in part because that's a quite small portion of the population who receive them, so it doesn't cost the government much. It's also more or less guaranteed to be the most persistent and organized members of the populace, so it's a strategic tradeoff for the government; don't lose much revenue, but lessen the antagonization of that portion of the populace most likely to be effective at causing trouble.

[bovlb]

Arguably I had no evidence of any probative value beyond my personal testimony. My photographs illustrating compliance were (by my own admission) taken after the citation and hence could easily have been inconsistent.

As I said before, it's just unlikely for your typical person to be in possession of proof that their car is legally parked every time they leave it on the street.

[ext_44906]

Yay! See me own little fight with bureacracy: http://drj11.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/extreme-pedantry-for-the-win/

Where I also win, but with far far less justification.

[bovlb]

Yes, I read that.

I did check for some obvious discrepancies, such as incorrect VIN or any sign of correction on the ticket itself. I would consider that a lack of positive assertion of the way in which the vehicle is in violation would be a problem, but that seems to be pretty normal for parking tickets.

[ext_44906]

I'm in two minds about the cop no-show. If she genuinely thinks she's wrong now, then it's not worth her showing up and her time would be better spent policing the streets.

I agree it's impolite and you don't get the satisfaction of asking her why she thought there was a basis for issuing the ticket, but it might be money well spent.

[bovlb]

If the cop comes to believe that the ticket was issued wrongly, then the best action would have been to void the ticket without making me go through a hearing. The police officer's time is not the only thing that costs money.

[manjushra]

good for you. I also have a record of successfully fighting parking tickets. Here the traffic warden has to take an initial photo proving your car is in violation, then has to wait no less than 5 minutes before applying the ticket and taking a photo of the ticket on the car. In my last case their photo didn't show the parking sign and the two photos weren't spaced 5 minutes apart, so I won.

More outrageously, my motorbike once got a ticket because I had parked it out of everyone's way in a corner of the car park which wasn't designated a parking space.

[bovlb]

Heh. The rules seem to favour the traffic police here.