VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Some big changes on how parking tickets are handled in Vancouver have been approved by city council.
Starting in February, the city will switch to bylaw adjudication, which will give the city more power and change the process for disputing tickets. Right now, there's a two and a half year backlog for disputing a ticket in court, under the new rules disputing a ticket should take just two and a half months.
First you'll see a screening officer who decides if it can move forward, then your case will be heard by phone, email or in person by a provincially appointed independent adjudicator who will make a decision.
If you lose, it will cost you $25. Unpaid tickets will be put to a collection agency, the city is hoping to increase collected fines by $1.2 million next year, and $3.6 million by 2014.
The city estimates it's been losing seven to eight million dollars in unpaid fines every year. The cost of the new program is about $240,000 annually.