Redundant parking ticket (attorneys, cost, legally)

[meechee]

I got 2 parking tickets for parking on a street that was being street cleaned. They are identical tickets given by two different officers within an hour of each other. The vehicle was not moved in between tickets. I appealed the second ticket arguing it was a redundant citation given in error - I lost the administrative review and appeal. Do I have any recourse? Thanx

meechee

[EscapeCalifornia]

The city's broke and wants twice as much of your money.

[ferretkona]

Fighting a parking ticket will only cost you more in the long run. We all hate it as well.

[Drover]

Wow, that's just dicky.

[Charles]

I actually used a reversed technique to park for free at Cal State Northridge back in the 1980s. I didn't have a parking decal on my car one semester so I would park in the student lots (illegally, since no parking decal) and I would place an envelope under my wiper blade on the windshield, just like the parking lot police would do with actual parking tickets. When they were on patrol and they saw the envelope on my car, they would just pass by thinking I had already received my ticket.

[jc76]

Originally Posted by Charles

I actually used a reversed technique to park for free at Cal State Northridge back in the 1980s. I didn't have a parking decal on my car one semester so I would park in the student lots (illegally, since no parking decal) and I would place an envelope under my wiper blade on the windshield, just like the parking lot police would do with actual parking tickets. When they were on patrol and they saw the envelope on my car, they would just pass by thinking I had already received my ticket.

Charles, that is BRILLIANT!!!!

[Chava61]

Originally Posted by Charles

I actually used a reversed technique to park for free at Cal State Northridge back in the 1980s. I didn't have a parking decal on my car one semester so I would park in the student lots (illegally, since no parking decal) and I would place an envelope under my wiper blade on the windshield, just like the parking lot police would do with actual parking tickets. When they were on patrol and they saw the envelope on my car, they would just pass by thinking I had already received my ticket.

That does not always work. Even if a police officer sees a ticket already on the car (as they know that drivers sometimes place on old tickets on their cars in order to avoid getting a ticket!) they can place a second one on it for the same time period such as street cleaning.
You can get 2 tickets for the same time period by 2 different police officers for street cleaning without having moved your car (appealing the ticket won't help).

[s0nginmyheart]

To OP: What area/city was this in?

[Domsey]

My gut reaction is that you got screwed and should have prevailed at that administrative review. Under the city's current policy as embraced in the administrative review, there is nothing to stop meter maids from issuing four or five or six or seven tickets, or a ticket every 20 seconds for two hours until you move your car.

That said, the municipal code may expressly authorize a second ticket if you are parked for a certain amount of time during street sweeping.

This may sound crazy, but if you have the gumption, the next step is to scour your city's municipal code to see how many tickets they can issue for the same infraction. If it doesn't say or it's just one, then I think you can take this to court as a constitutional violation (double jeopardy). You may find an attorney to take this case for free. It's my understanding that you can obtain an award of attorneys' fees for certain vindications of constitutional rights.

Is it worth it? Probably not.

[LArenter]

Ha. I've done the old parking ticket envelope thing and it does not work 100% of the time, I learned from experience. Sometimes the policeman/ticket cop who patrols the area is the only person who patrols the area and knows that he has yet to give tickets in that location.

Also, I've heard of multiple tickets, but that usually occurs when you have a double violation of the same violatin, e.g. you park for 5 hours in a two hour zone; they give you a ticket sometime during the third hour and again sometime on the 5th hour.