L.A.’s Outsourced Parking Ticket Appeal System Smacked Down by Courts

Good news for those
wanting to challenge parking tickets out of Los Angeles, via
L.A. Weekly:

James Chalfant of Los Angeles Superior Court, ruled tentatively
that the city can no longer outsource its appeals review
process….That could make it more difficult for the city to reject
your objections:…

The judge wrote in his tentative ruling that … “the
statutory scheme requires the City as issuing agency to conduct the
initial review, and it may not delegate that task to its processing
agency, Xerox.”

Xerox itself subcontracts out to a company called PRWT.
According to winning plaintiff’s lawyer Caleb Marker:

an employee [of PRWT] must review the motorist’s
challenge, any evidence, the City’s rules, and render a decision in
approximately three minutes or less. More troubling is Plaintiff’s
contention that City rules require most initial reviews to be
denied absent a few limited circumstances, and that some rules
automatically deny the initial challenge, all without regard to
evidence that a motorist may submit with the initial review,
without ever disclosing to the motorist that his or her evidence
was not actually considered. Naturally, most motorists give up and
the City, through Xerox, collects millions of dollars.

 Marker told [the
Weekly] that he believes the ruling will prevent City
Hall from contracting out its review process. “Under the
court’s ruling the city will be required to start conduct initial
reviews itself,” he said.

….the judge will likely issue a writ by next month that orders
the city to stop this practice….

The attorney believes the decision could apply statewide because
it’s based on California vehicle code. “We think this ruling has
effect across California, not just in L.A.,” he told us.

Blogging on a different L.A.-based suit
challenging the very constitutionality of aspects of how fees
are piled onto parking tickets.

I take you back to the misty glorious days when
parking meters themselves were illegal.