Illegal Automobile Impoundments by the Philadelphia Parking Authority
Issues With Getting Your Vehicle Out of Impoundment
If you've ever had your car booted or impounded by the Philadelphia Parking Authority (“PPA”) and do not feel you were treated fairly, feel free to contact me for a legal consultation. I have sued the PPA before, and I would like to do so again. The PPA has various practices that are potentially illegal.
The PPA makes it unreasonably difficult to challenge your tickets after your car is booted or impounded. Payment constitutes a guilty plea, yet you're forced to pay to get your car released. By ordinance, the PPA is supposed to release your car immediately upon posting a bond for the amount of the tickets, yet in practice the PPA has no procedure for accepting bonds, and does not tell people they can post a bond.
By ordinance, the validity of your tickets are not subject to dispute in the expedited post impoundment hearing. The subject matter of that hearing is limited to whether there was probable cause for an impoundment, not the validity of your tickets or the amount you have to pay for the return of your car. If you want to challenge the tickets, the ordinance instructs that you have to wait for a hearing on the tickets in due course, which is going to be several weeks, probably about a month, Yet, you probably cannot wait several weeks for the return of your car, and the PPA will be assessing storage charges against you of about $30 a day.
You won't have to pay the storage if you successfully challenge the tickets, but why would you take the chance when the storage fee will add up into the hundreds of dollars during the time it takes to have a hearing. You also might only want to challenge some of the tickets, but not all of them, in which case you’ll still have to pay the full storage charges, which will likely discourage you from challenging any of the tickets.
These are unfair practices that may violate a car owner’s right to due process by putting undue pressure on owners to pay fines they do not owe.
Payment Plans
The PPA will allow car owners to enter into a payment plan for the return of their cars, but the PPA will require a lump sum down payment before approving the plan. The down payment will either be 25% of the balance or 50% of the balance, with the rest due in 12 monthly installments. The repayment terms will be set without consideration of the car owner’s ability to pay, which might violate the equal protection rights of lower income car owners who cannot afford these terms.
The obligatory warning is for you not to rely on the information on this website as legal advice. Every case is unique. Contact me to discuss the facts of your individual situation. Robert.Salvin@outlook.com. 215-300-2388.
Post a Bond To Get Your Car Released
Section 9-2406 of the Philadelphia Code states:
The owner or any person on behalf of the owner may obtain immediate release of the vehicle by posting a bond equal to the amount of the unpaid parking tickets issued to any and all vehicles registered in the name of the owner of the vehicle that is to be recovered, booting and/or towing fees and accrued storage fees. Such bond shall be obtained in order to ensure the alleged violator's appearance before a Parking Hearing Examiner as set forth in Chapter 12-2800 and shall be held as collateral until a hearing on the underlying parking violations is completed and a determination of liability is made pursuant to Chapter 12-2800.
The ability to post a bond for the return of your car is the only means the law provides for a consumer to get back their car while they challenge the legality of any of their parking tickets. Without the ability to post a bond, consumers are basically coerced into paying whatever the PPA demands because there is no other way to get back their car.
As far as I can tell, the PPA does not appear to have any procedures to allow for the posting of a bond, and if you tell them you want to post a bond for the return of your car, I anticipate that the front line staff will not know what you’re talking about, and tell you posting a bond is not an option.
Nevertheless, I wrote the bond form at this link. Click “Here.” Feel free to print this form, fill it out specifying the car to be released, the amount of the bond, and other designated information, and present it to the PPA asking for your car to be released. I anticipate that the PPA will tell you they are not going to release the car, but the PPA’s failure to follow their own ordinance could also be the basis for a lawsuit. Give me a call and tell me what happened.