Detroit Class Action Says $45 Parking Tickets Unconstitutional

The City of Detroit was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging the $45 parking tickets doled out by the city are unconstitutional.

Lead plaintiffs are residents of the city and suburbs who claim that the high tech parking system that allows users to pay with credit cards is illegal under the city’s own code.

The plaintiffs say that under the new system, offenders are not allowed a $10 discount for early payments provided for under Detroit city code.

Additionally, the plaintiffs allege that the fees are excessive and treatment of repeat parking offenders is too harsh.

The lawsuit claims the excessive parking fees also scare people away from downtown Detroit, further harming businesses in the area.

The City of Detroit violated the plaintiffs and others’ due process rights under the U.S. Constitution, allege the plaintiffs.

“Defendants violated Plaintiffs’ Constitutional right to be free of excessive fines when they were assessed unlawful and unauthorized fines in excess of those allowed by law,” states the complaint.

According to the Detroit class action lawsuit, a city manager approved increasing parking fees and removed the discount for early payment in 2014. However, say the plaintiffs, the city manager’s actions were never “enacted or published,” and therefore never became law.

“In the summer of 2014, despite the lack of any duly enacted and published ordinance that would allow for higher fines to be imposed, Defendants began to  wrongfully issue citations with increased fines (consistent with the increased fine schedule that the Emergency Manager’s Order had proposed), eliminated the  early payment discount and omitted any reference to the early-payment discount on the citations,” states the Detroit class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs allege that while the City has reaped profits from the new parking systems and the fines, millions of dollars were extracted from city residents illegally. The class action lawsuit argues that parking fines are not meant to be a profit stream for the city, but a way to ensure that people can find parking to access businesses within the city.

“Millions of dollars in unlawful and unauthorized fines have been assessed and collected by (Detroit) as a result of their wrongful actions and to the detriment tens of thousands of car owners (if not more) who were assessed excessive fines for alleged parking violations,” alleges the Detroit class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs also take issue with the harsh treatment of repeat parking offenders. They say the booting and towing of vehicles is excessive for parking violations.

Further, the company the city uses for the parking system and enforcement has been unjustly enriched by the excessive fees, the lawsuit calims.

The plaintiffs seek to represent all those with vehicles registered to them who were assessed allegedly illegal parking fees by the City of Detroit.

The plaintiffs are seeking a statement that the excessive fees violate the Constitution and an order stopping the city from assessing the fees. The plaintiffs also want the Detroit to reinstate the discount and previous fee schedule.

The Detroit drivers are represented by Shaun P. Godwin of Godwin Legal Services PLC.

The Detroit Illegal Parking Fees Class Action Lawsuit is Friess, et al. v. City of Detroit, et al., Case No. 2:17-cv-14139-DPH-APP, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division.