Michigan Parking Chalk Class Action Could Lead to Similar Lawsuits Across the US

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Get hit with a parking ticket after having your car tires chalked? 

If a recent decision in Michigan is anything to go by, you could have a class action claim — and a chance of recovering the cost of the ticket. 

The news comes thanks to a parking ticket case in Saginaw, Michigan that snaked its way to the 6th Circuit appeals court in 2019, where judges ruled that tire chalking violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. 

Now, the case has been certified to move forward as a class action lawsuit, the Detroit Free Press reports. 

This could have wide-ranging implications for drivers in Saginaw and beyond, legal experts say. The class action argues that thousands of Saginaw residents should be reimbursed for the parking tickets they paid thanks to the “unconstitutional tire chalking process.” 

“The fact that the class action has been certified cranks up the stakes for the city. It provides the possibility of a remedy and institutional changes that would benefit citizens,” consumer law expert Danny Karon told Top Class Actions.

The 6th Circuit has jurisdiction over district courts in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, meaning its decision will apply to similar cases in the countless municipalities across these states that use chalking in ticket enforcement. 

“If there’s chalking going on there, you can bet that there will be chalking class actions popping up all over these states,” Karon said.

We can also expect to see similar cases pop up outside of the 6th Circuit, as the ruling was made not on Michigan law, but according to federal law, Karon said. 

“If a federal law is involved — and the Constitution is as federal as it gets — you can expect the ruling to encourage litigation in other states.”

The case has also been cited by lawyers suing Los Angeles and San Diego over a similar practice in those California cities.

However, for lawyers to take the case, there needs to be some money in it, and it’s hard to get money simply from an injunctive claim and plaintiffs seeking parking ticket refunds.

“I don’t know these lawyers’ theory for monetizing the claim and getting paid. It’s tough to take a percentage of ‘stop doing that,’” he said.

Chalking is a practice parking enforcers nationwide use to monitor how long a car has been in a parking spot. They mark a tire with chalk and then circle back later to see if the car has moved. 

Saginaw resident Alison Taylor started putting together her case against the city in 2016, after getting 14 parking tickets in three years.

According to her case, one particular parking enforcer was a “prolific chalker.” Her attorneys, Outside Legal Counsel, argued that chalking violates the Fourth Amendment’s restriction on unreasonable searches and seizures. 

The case slowly made its way to the 6th Circuit, where a three-judge panel unanimously agreed: chalking is indeed a “search” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment because government officials physically trespass upon a constitutionally protected area to obtain information. 

The decision came after the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that sticking a GPS tracker to a car counted as a “search,” which is similar to marking a tire with chalk to figure out how long it has been parked, the court wrote.

Have you got parking tickets after having your tires chalked? Let us know your experience in the comments! 

Taylor is represented by Philip Ellison of Outside Legal Counsel PLC and by Matthew E. Gronda.

The Unconstitutional Tire Chalking Class Action Lawsuit is Alison Patricia Taylor v. City of Saginaw, et al., Case No. 17-2126, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

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