Parking Ticket for "No Stopping Any Time" Zone. Very Unreasonable

[x4words]

My question involves a traffic citation from the state of: California, Los Angeles County.


I went to my local car wash and had my truck washed.
After getting out of the car wash and getting on the main road, I noticed that they had missed a couple spots of water on my windshield.. rather than pull over on the side of a major road, I figured it would be better to pull into a residential area..

I turned onto the road, went halfway up the street, and pulled over. (This road was a residential street.. it didn't have markings on the road, but it was a 2-lane road, with curbs on the side and plenty of room to park along the curb and not interfere with traffic).

I got out of my car, left my driver's door open and my truck running, and wiped off my windshield. I went to get back in my truck, but no less than 15 seconds after I stopped, a City Parking Enforcement officer was behind my truck writing me a ticket. He showed me a sign a ways up the street that said "No stopping any time", and it had an arrow pointed towards the area I was stopped. He didn't care to hear my story, and wrote me the ticket and I left.

Is there any way I can get out of this? I think it was pretty unreasonable I was stopped for less than 20 seconds, and it was to wipe something off my windshield.. It's not like I was parked or interfering with traffic or anything..

[cdwjava]

You can utilize the appeal process to contest the parking citation. Your appeal will be heard by a panel or an employee designated to hear such appeals. You may be required to post the fine prior to the hearing. The worst thing that happens is that they uphold the citation.

It may not be "reasonable," but it was likely lawful. That is most often the burden for the first level of appeal. I am the appeals officer for my department, and I would most likely uphold the citation under those circumstances. You should then have a second appeal option which may be to an administrator. At that level, you might be able to make the emotional appeal and hope for compassion. Finally, you can appeal to the court. But, since it appears the citation was technically correct, you'd likely lose there and also would have to pay for the court costs.

But, you should have nothing to lose by contesting it at this point. Who knows, you might get lucky?