Fight Every Wrongfully Issued Parking Ticket — Even If You Think the City Might Have Been Right
The system is designed to make you pay and go away. Here's why you should do neither.
I am writing this while waiting for a pre-trial Zoom hearing on a ticket issued by the Town of Palm Beach — the same defendant in a federal lawsuit I filed in the Southern District of Florida. My advice: fight every wrongfully issued ticket, every time, even when that small voice whispers the city might have had a point.
Under Florida law, a citation is only enforceable if supported by a compliant sign. Florida Statute §316.0745(4) requires MUTCD conformance. Wrong color, wrong position, fails to illuminate — the sign is a legal nullity. A ticket born from a nullity is no ticket at all.
“If the sign doesn’t glow, the ticket’s gotta go. If the sign is blue, it can’t tell you what to do.”
Palm Beach has taken the shakedown further. To park on a public street in this enclave — where our president resides, on roads your taxes maintain — you must download ParkMobile. Not one option among several. Required. Then pay a convenience fee on top. No meter. No pay station. No cash. Just a private company’s app as the toll booth to a public street. That is a paywall on public property, and it raises serious questions about unconstitutional delegation of police power, ADA Title II compliance, and whether those “convenience fees” are unauthorized taxes under the Florida Constitution.
Here is the practical argument: every ticket paid without contest tells the municipality the math works. The moment enough drivers fight, it doesn’t. You need no lawyer — request a hearing, show up, and ask the officer to prove the sign was compliant. Ask whether a non-app option existed. The burden is theirs, not yours.
My federal case names six Florida municipalities and multiple private vendors. The alleged overcharge to Florida drivers runs into the billions over a decade. But it started with one ticket, one sign I looked up at, one city that assumed I’d pay and walk away.
I didn’t. Neither should you.
I got ticketed in St Pete Florida at the pier a couple of years ago, fought it and won. Said I didn’t pay at the kiosk and they had actually ticketed me between getting out of the car and walking over to the kiosk to pay. Thank goodness I took a screenshot of the payment screen.