First things first: I knew my license plates were expired. I live in Indiana, and people whose last name begins with B must renew their license plates in February in Indiana. Mine expire every year on the 21st of February.So by the time June came around, I had no excuse for not having renewed my plates. I drive an old car, and it costs less than thirty bucks to renew the plates. Since it costs so little, it was a low priority chore for me. I’m the first to admit that doesn’t make sense, but that’s how I thought about it. Once I missed the renewal date, I stopped thinking about it.Actually, that’s not quite true. I did think about it. I tried to renew online, but since it was past the renewal date, I couldn’t do so. I tried to renew at the after-hours do-it-yourself kiosk at the license branch, but couldn’t do it there either. So I knew I’d have to go into the branch and talk to a real, live person.“I’ll get to it,” I kept telling myself. Week after week I put it off, always with the understanding that if a police officer pulled me over I’d probably get a ticket.Then one day in mid-June I came out to my car and saw the menacing orange envelope tucked under my windshield wiper. Ticket. I’ve received a couple of these during the fourteen years I’ve driven to Chicago for work on a daily basis. I looked for No Parking signs, and saw none. I checked my distance to the curb, looked for a fire hydrant, nothing. I couldn’t figure out why I got the ticket.And then, as I pulled the slip of paper from the orange envelope, it occurred to me. The plates!I looked at the slip of paper, and sure enough, I received a $60 ticket for expired plates.But I’m an Indiana resident! Why does Chicago care if I have expired Indiana plates? Is that even legal? They can’t ticket me for having expired plates from another state. Shouldn’t someone in Indiana ticket me?“I need to check the city ordinance on this,” I told myself.I checked online and found two different sources for the Chicago Municipal Code. They both were clear. The City of Chicago code states that any car that’s subject to the Illinois Vehicle Code (which is pretty much any passenger car driven on an Illinois road) must comply with that code, and cannot be parked on a city roadway if it doesn’t comply with that code.The city could ticket me even though my expired plates were out-of-state.However, as I compared the two sources, I noticed some differences.It’s Title 9, Chapter 76, Section 160 that deals with Registration plates. And in the unofficial source, there were five subsections: a, b, c, d, and f. (e was reserved). But in the official source, there were only two subsections: a and b. And a closer examination showed that subsections b, c, and d had been combined under subsection a, and subsection f had been reclassified as subsection b.I reviewed my ticket and noticed that the ticket specifically referred to the law that I violated as 976160f.But according to the official code provided by the city, there was no f! The violation that used to be under f (of which I was obviously guilty), had been reclassified under subsection b.I checked the rules for contesting a ticket, and found that a ticket could be contested if I wasn’t in violation of the specific code stated. I couldn’t have been in violation of the code stated because that code didn’t exist anymore!(By the way, after receiving the first ticket I went to the license branch and renewed my plates that night. However, if you go to the license branch they have to mail the sticker to you, even though the machine right outside their doors can print it right then. So the next day I returned to work, still with an expired sticker, and received another ticket!)But before I sent in my appeal, I wanted to know why the discrepancy existed in the two sources. I soon found the minutes from the November 16, 2016 Chicago City Council meeting and discovered that Section 160 had been amended at that meeting. The official source of the city code had been updated, but apparently the machine used by the Department of Revenue to write the ticket hadn’t been updated.(Incidentally, I think it’s quite revealing that it’s the Department of Revenue that writes traffic tickets, not the police, or a Department of Safety or something. No. Revenue.)I explained my case, provided the supporting documentation, and mailed my appeal. A few days later I checked online and my case was listed as “Hearing Scheduled.” It remained in that status for four months, until last week when the status changed to “Dismissed” and I received a letter explaining that I wasn’t responsible for the ticket because the violation was incorrectly noted on the ticket issued to me.I received that ticket a full seven months after the City Council amended the code. How many other people received parking tickets under Section 160 and paid them without checking to ensure they had been cited correctly?I’d love to know if the city has updated their machines to cite the correct subsection.A couple of months ago, near the end of the day, I went out and moved my car closer to my building. As I pulled up behind a car with Massachusetts plates, I noticed that they were expired. When I got out of my car I also saw that he had an orange envelope under his wiper.I ran into my office, copied all of the documentation I’d sent to contest my ticket, blacked out the identifying information, and wrote a quick note telling the person to check which subsection he was cited under, and to contest if it was incorrect.I don’t know if he did or not, but I’d like to think so.Wasn't that well-written and fun to read? You should subscribe to my blog and we'll send you an e-mail every time I write a new one. Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.
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