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Each year, parking enforcement officers issue millions of parking tickets in California, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in fine revenue for the state. Part of the reason why these tickets result in such a quickly growing and bottomless money pit is because so few people understand how California’s parking tickets actually work, let alone contest them in court. This article will walk you through the entirety of California’s parking ticket dispute process.
How Long Do You Have To Pay a Parking Ticket in California?
If you receive a parking ticket in California, you’ll have 21 days to either pay or contest it. The timeline for delinquent parking notices is slightly shorter, amounting to only 14 days before the due date. Failure to pay a parking ticket before then can incur additional financial and legal penalties, such as late fees and potential debt collection activities.
How To Pay a Parking Ticket in California
All of California’s traffic courts offer at least the following three methods of payment: by mail, over the phone, and in person. In more technologically advanced counties, you might be able to pay online. Of course, the best option is typically to just go to appwinit.com and pay your ticket in a matter of seconds from the comfort of your home—if you don’t want to fight it.
It’s important to know that to pay a parking ticket is to admit guilt. This is the same as pleading guilty to the parking ticket. If you do not want to plead guilty, then do not pay the ticket until after you have hired a lawyer from the WinIt app or website and finished contesting the case.
By Mail
All parking tickets in California can be paid via mail. To do so, write a check (or obtain a money order or cashier’s check) to the following address:
Parking Violations Bureau
P.O. BOX 30247
Los Angeles, CA 90030
The payment must be in United States Dollars and equal the exact amount of the ticket’s fine. Underpaying or overpaying can result in additional bureaucratic frustrations.
On your check, be sure to include a note with your citation number(s) and your full legal name.
By Phone
When paying a parking ticket over the phone, you will have to call the Parking Violations Bureau. The organization has two phone numbers:
- (866) 561-9742
- (213) 623-7046
In Person
There are four main Parking Violations Bureau locations that accept in-person payments for California parking tickets:
- Downtown: 312 W 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
- Mid-Wilshire: 3333 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 3337, Los Angeles, CA 90010
- Van Nuys: 6309 Van Nuys Blvd., Suite 103, Van Nuys, CA 91401
- West Los Angeles: 1575 Westwood Blvd., Suite 100B, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Online
The easiest way to pay parking tickets in California is to pay them online. Unfortunately, only a handful of courts allow you to pay tickets in their jurisdiction through online portals. And, even when some do, the portals are often convoluted, confusing, and hard to navigate. Instead of worrying about all of that hubbub, just head over www.appwinit.com, where paying parking tickets is easy.
If you have a smartphone, you can even download the WinIt app and pay parking tickets with a tap of your screen. WinIt also empowers you to find affordable and effective legal support right from the comfort of your own home. We’ll provide more information on that toward the end of this article. But first, let’s get back to the basics.
How Much Are Parking Tickets in California?
California’s parking tickets might not be among the most expensive in the country on average, but are certainly among the most commonplace. The following table lays out the California Vehicle Code (CVC) section, violation description, and cost of each kind of parking ticket:
| California Vehicle Code Section | Type of Parking Ticket | Ticket Amount |
| CVC 21113(A) | NO PAID PARKING SESSION/NO PERMIT DISPLAYED | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | PERMIT IMPROPERLY DISPLAYED | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | EXPIRED PERMIT/PKG SESSION | $65.00 |
| CVC 22500.1 | PARKED IN A FIRE LANE | $80.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | RED CURB | $80.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | COIN METER EXPIRED | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | TIMED ZONE VIOLATION | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | VIOLATION OF POSTED SIGNS | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | UNDESIGNATED AREA | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | ZONE VIOLATION | $150.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | REPORTED LOST/STOLEN PERMIT | $350.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | COUNTERFEIT/ALTERED PERMIT | $350.00 |
| CVC 22507.8 | DISABLED ZONE/PARKED IN DISABLED SPACE | $421.00 |
| CVC 22507.8 | DISABLED ZONE-2ND VIOLATION | $625.00 |
| CVC 22507.8 | DISABLED ZONE-3RD VIOLATION | $825.00 |
| CVC 22500 | LOADING/UNLOADING ZONE VIOLATION | $65.00 |
| CVC 22500(B) | PARKED IN CROSSWALK | $65.00 |
| CVC 22500(E) | BLOCKING DRIVEWAY | $65.00 |
| CVC 22500(E) | SIDEWALK | $65.00 |
| CVC 21209(A) | BIKE LANE | $65.00 |
| CVC 22500(G) | OBSTRUCTING TRAFFIC | $65.00 |
| CVC 22500(J) | BUS ZONE | $250.00 |
| CVC 5204 | INVALID/EXPIRED TABS | $25.00 |
| CVC 25500(H) | DOUBLE PARKED | $65.00 |
| CVC 22500(L) | PARKED AT DISABLED CURB CUT | $421.00 |
| CVC 22514 | PARKED IN FRONT OF FIRE HYDRANT | $80.00 |
| CVC 22522 | PARKING NEAR RAMP FOR HANDICAPPED | $421.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | PARKED IN RESERVED SPACE | $150.00 |
| CVC 21113(A) | INVALID PERMIT/PARKING SESSION | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113 (A) | RESERVED LOT D | $150.00 |
| CVC 21113 (A) | LICENSE PLATE NOT VISIBLE FROM DRIVE AISLE | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113 (A) | OVERNIGHT PARKING NOT ALLOWED IN AREA | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113 (A) | LICENSE PLATE NOT REGISTERED TO VIRTUAL PERMIT | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113 (A) | SHARED PERMIT | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113 (A) | PERMIT TIME LIMIT EXCEEDED | $65.00 |
| CVC 21113 (A) | VEHICLE MUST BE ACTIVELY CHARGING | $65.00 |
| CVC 22511.56 | MISUSE OF DISABLED PLATE/PLACARD | $421.00 |
| CVC 21113 (A) | VEHICLE PARKED IN TWO SPACES | $65.00 |
| N/A | WARNING TICKET | $0.00 |
What Happens if I Don’t Pay a California Parking Ticket?
Failure to pay a parking ticket in California can open the door to additional legal action. Either you pay your ticket, you get your case dismissed with help from a lawyer on the WinIt app, or you do nothing—but, if you do nothing, your situation will only get worse.
First things first, the government will increase the balance that you have to pay by adding additional late fees. If you continue to ignore the outstanding balance, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) might suspend your license until you pay the balance in full.
California courts also practice a policy called “registration-based enforcement.” What this is is when the DMV denies all applications for vehicle registrations until you pay your outstanding ticket balance. In other words, you will not be able to operate your vehicle whatsoever until after paying the ticket.
As if all that weren’t bad enough, the DMV also has the authority to impose an additional one-time “civil assessment” of up to $300 on top of what you already owe. After that, if you still don’t pay, the DMV might refer your case to a debt collection agency, which can devastate your credit score. If your lack of payment is deemed criminal, a court might even issue a warrant for your arrest and charge you with “Failure to Pay,” which can be a criminal misdemeanor offense.
Parking Ticket Defenses
There’s no concrete way to beat a parking ticket, but the following tips and tricks tend to help improve the odds of getting a favorable outcome:
- Prove that the ticket is “illegible.”
- Prove that the ticket displays a date, time, or county other than where your vehicle was when the ticket was issued.
- Prove that the vehicle listed on the ticket is not your vehicle.
- Prove that the ticket didn’t specify whether you parked “in front of” or “opposite” the address in question.
For more information on these strategies, including what they mean and how they might help you, contact a lawyer through the WinIt app.
Hire an Attorney To Fight Your Ticket or Pay Through appwinit.com
Hiring a lawyer to represent you in a parking ticket dispute case has been shown to significantly increase your chances of receiving a favorable verdict. However, many people choose to go it alone, usually because of the common misconception that lawyers are too expensive or not worth the money. Both of those claims couldn’t be further from the truth.
In the majority of cases, lawyers cost far less than the total cost of a parking ticket, which can reach thousands of dollars if you let it go unpaid. The best way to avoid the financial burden imposed by parking tickets in California is to take your case to court and win it with WinIt. Head over to www.appwinit.com to get started building your case today.
