Attorney Todd Kooperman launches a GoFundMe campaign to fight unfair parking tickets in Chicago

• Author: Liane Jackson
• Pages: 9-9

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TODD KOOPERMAN

Opening

Statements

OCTOBER 2017 ABA JOURNAL || 9

EDITED BY LIANE JACKSON / LIANE.JACKSON@AMERICA NBAR.ORG

WHAT DO YOU MEAN

‘NO PARKING’?

Todd Kooperman is an attorney on a mission. L ast summer, he received a

$60 parking ticket that he thin ks violates his constitutional r ights. Kooperman

says that the city of Chic ago didn’t give him proper notice about street cleaning,

and that the law is too vag ue. To d ate, Kooperman estimates he’s dedicate d

close to 100 hours researching a nd fi ghting the ticket, on principle.

“I keep thinking about poor pe ople who can’t a ord a $60 ticket. What can

they do?” he says. “Their cars ge t impounded.”

Kooperman doesn’t drive hi s car regularly. He usually bikes to work and

passes his ca r on his way home to see whether any temporary no-parking signs

have been placed on his Loga n Square block. On July 25, 2016, he rode by his

car around 6 p.m. and saw no signs. The nex t day, a parking ticket wa s placed

on his car at 9:55 a.m.

This prompted Kooperman t o

look into the law, and he expected

to fi nd that 24 -hour notice is

required to post a sign pr ior to

ticketing. But he instead found

that no specifi c advance notice

is required. In the lawsuit , he’s

requesting that the cour t enter an

order to stop the city from tick-

eting during temporar y parking

bans until it provides cla rity on

the timing issue.

“Legally, there’s nothing that

prevents them from putting up

temporary no-park ing signs at

9 a.m. and star ting their ticketing

at 9:01,” says Kooperman, who

started a G oFundMe campaign

called the Chica go Parking Ticket

Resistance. It had ga rnered $655

of his $1,500 goal at press time.

Kooperman fought the ticket

(and lost) in an administrative

hearing and chancer y court.

Now, with the help of Chicago

civil rights at torney Mark

Weinberg, he’s appealing the

circuit court ’s decision.

If Kooperman wi ns, the

city could take a fi nancial h it.

According to a recent Chic ago

Tri bu n e ar ticle, the Department

of Streets and San itation issued

more than 270,000 street-sweep -

ing tickets in 2016. At $60 per

ticket, that amounts t o more than

$16 million in fi nes.

He stresses that parki ng regu-

lations are necessar y, but people

have to know the rules. “ The rules

need to be fair, and they need to

be consistently and appropriately

enforced,” he says. “That’s why I’m

fi ghting thi s.” —Kate Silver

CHICAGO ATTORNEY LAUNCHES PARKING TICKET RESISTANCE

Todd Kooperman