Cole Conner

Review of Hennepin County District Attor...

It's infuriating that you have to take time off wo...

It's infuriating that you have to take time off work to show up in person just to show your proof of payment or proof of a broken parking meter to fight an illegitimate parking ticket, then be charged a downright extortionate rate of $10 per 15 minutes for parking while you were there.

Furthermore you are forced to plead guilty to get the fee waived because if you actually want to plead innocent you need to schedule a 2nd court appearance and take additional time off work, a detail which is not mentioned at any point until you are already there with the hearing officer. It feels like they purposely make it so hard and inconvenient to fight a ticket that any normal person will just pay the fee. Feels a little bit like extortion.

In the future I will just resign myself to pay any unfair ticket rather than fight it (a process I have been through twice now and "won" both times), because it's impossible to actually walk away with a positive outcome (the 2 court appearances required to get an innocent verdict on a ticket would cost a minimum of $60 in parking alone plus taking time off from work on two separate days).