The people of Los Angeles got a sliver of justice and dare I say redemption this week when judge, James Chalfant of Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that LA could no longer outsource its appeals process.
If you’re wondering what that aroma is you smell wafting past your nose … it’s the smell of long overdue justice. It’s long been known that appealing your parking ticket was about as successful as a LeBron James hair growth tonic. Most people simply pay their tickets knowing that the existing appeals process as completely futile no matter how unjust the ticket.
It is common knowledge that all initial appeals against parking tickets are denied. Then again, since LA outsourced ticket appeals and collection to the private company Xerox who turned around and outsourced it to the private company PRWT, what motivation do these companies have in making sure you received justice? Last time I checked, the only thing they care about is profits. Have we learned nothing from watching Michael Douglass in Wall Street?
The crappier the appeals process these private companies establish the better their bottom-line. This is what we call massive conflicting interests or what I like to call business as usual. The interests of citizen to receive judicious oversight of a program that grosses over $150 million for private companies is slim to nil, unless they are forced to have it. This is was we like to call oversight and accountability.
It seems we as citizens should have protected ourselves against our own publicly elected officials passing the buck on making sure we get a fair shake in parking ticket appeals. Wait for it … Wait for it … It turns out, we did. Judge Chalfant noted that the current statute requires that the city does the initial review of all appeals. Way to go us for not trusting our government to do what was actually in our best interest and creating legal oversight. Someone was clearly thinking ahead.
In a move of true shock and awe, Xerox plans to appeal. Ok, maybe not so much shock or awe, but more like yeah and duh. What big business would go down without a fight? I’d expect them to throw a solid $50 million in lawyer’s fees at it. I mean, just think about how many B.S. tickets you’ve paid out over the years. Now, multiply that by 12.8 million, the population of the Greater Los Angeles area. Having to not collect on bogus tickets could really cut into year-end bonuses for CEOs at Xerox and PRWT.
The only question I have is how did it take this long for this to be challenged? It’s not like this is a new system or we all didn’t know it was unfair. I guess it all comes down to who’s going to take the time and energy to fight a system, instead of simply complain about it. For the record, I was one of those mostly complaining.
If you’re wondering what that aroma is you smell wafting past your nose … it’s the smell of long overdue justice. It’s long been known that appealing your parking ticket was about as successful as a LeBron James hair growth tonic. Most people simply pay their tickets knowing that the existing appeals process as completely futile no matter how unjust the ticket.
It is common knowledge that all initial appeals against parking tickets are denied. Then again, since LA outsourced ticket appeals and collection to the private company Xerox who turned around and outsourced it to the private company PRWT, what motivation do these companies have in making sure you received justice? Last time I checked, the only thing they care about is profits. Have we learned nothing from watching Michael Douglass in Wall Street?
The crappier the appeals process these private companies establish the better their bottom-line. This is what we call massive conflicting interests or what I like to call business as usual. The interests of citizen to receive judicious oversight of a program that grosses over $150 million for private companies is slim to nil, unless they are forced to have it. This is was we like to call oversight and accountability.
It seems we as citizens should have protected ourselves against our own publicly elected officials passing the buck on making sure we get a fair shake in parking ticket appeals. Wait for it … Wait for it … It turns out, we did. Judge Chalfant noted that the current statute requires that the city does the initial review of all appeals. Way to go us for not trusting our government to do what was actually in our best interest and creating legal oversight. Someone was clearly thinking ahead.
In a move of true shock and awe, Xerox plans to appeal. Ok, maybe not so much shock or awe, but more like yeah and duh. What big business would go down without a fight? I’d expect them to throw a solid $50 million in lawyer’s fees at it. I mean, just think about how many B.S. tickets you’ve paid out over the years. Now, multiply that by 12.8 million, the population of the Greater Los Angeles area. Having to not collect on bogus tickets could really cut into year-end bonuses for CEOs at Xerox and PRWT.
The only question I have is how did it take this long for this to be challenged? It’s not like this is a new system or we all didn’t know it was unfair. I guess it all comes down to who’s going to take the time and energy to fight a system, instead of simply complain about it. For the record, I was one of those mostly complaining.
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