Can I Contest a Chicago Parking Ticket?

The city of Chicago assesses parking tickets for drivers who leave their vehicles parked at meters after they have expired. While the rates of these tickets are supposed to be assessed according to geographic location, recent reports indicate that the city may be assessing incorrectly high parking tickets for its residents and visitors.

What Are the Chicago Parking Ticket Allegations?

According to the city of Chicago’s webpage listing the fines associated with parking, compliance, and automated enforcement violations, drivers who leave their car parked on an expired meter in the downtown business district can expect to face a $65 Chicago parking ticket. Drivers who overstay meters in other parts of the city are only supposed to be assessed a $50 fine. However, according to recent reports, the city may be assessing $65 fines to people who did not park downtown. Thousands of residents and visitors may have been affected by these incorrect tickets.

How Many Chicago Parking Tickets May Be Incorrect?

According to Matt Chapman, who discovered the ticketing error through research on Pro Publica, 30,002 parking tickets between 2013 and 2018 were assessed at the incorrect parking rate. If this figure is correct, the city of Chicago may have overcharged drivers by more than $450,000 in that time period. In another time period from January 2007 to November 2008, parking tickets in downtown were supposed to be $50, while tickets elsewhere in the city were $30. During this period, more than 8,000 incorrect tickets were assessed, at a potential overcharge of $165,000.

Additionally, Chapman claims that Chicago’s overcharging is a long-time problem. “It’s been going on basically as long as probably back since 1995 or so, and as far as I know it’s still going on.”

City officials claim to have been unaware of the Chicago parking ticket overcharges until it was reported by Chapman. According to the city, parking tickets from 2007 to the present will be analyzed in order to confirm that they were correctly assessed.

Can I Contest a Chicago Parking Ticket?

Victims who were issued incorrect Chicago parking tickets for expired meters may be able to recover reimbursement for this error. According to Matt, approximately 5,000 of the overpriced parking tickets have already been challenged in court. Around 70 percent of the victims who challenged their incorrect parking tickets won their cases.

According to an investigation by CBS 2, even Chicago parking tickets assessed at the correct rate may be able to be successfully fought. CBS 2’s research also found that approximately 71 percent of expired meter tickets that were fought were won by the driver.

If you have records proving that you were assessed a parking ticket for an expired meter located outside of Chicago’s downtown, and the ticket is for the downtown ticket rate, you may qualify to join or file a class action lawsuit and pursue compensation.

Join a Free Chicago Parking Tickets Lawsuit Investigation

If you were issued a parking ticket in Chicago outside of the central business district and were charged $65, you may qualify to join this Chicago parking ticket class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.