University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, March 18. 1992
5
Student-run court is salvation for campus parking appeals
By Janet Rorholm Kansan staff writer
For those who find parking tickets on their cars and do not think the tickets are fair, there is justice — the KU Traffic Court.
The court is run by KU law students, with first-year law students acting as prosecuting and defense attorneys and second-year law students acting as judges.
Anyone who receives a ticket can appeal the ticket within 15 days. To appeal, an argument must be submitted in writing to the parking office at the Parking Facility and a judge will make a decision, or at a student's request, a law student can be assigned to help the appeal by preparing the argument and presenting it to the three judges of the court.
In 1991, 2,283 people appealed their tickets, and 61 percent won their appeals. The number increased from 1990, when 2,056 people appealed and 41 percent won.
Some law students said that much of the time, parking regulations did not seem rational.
"Law students are still students so we're pretty sympathetic, but there are some genuine cases where the situation doesn't seem fair," said Kasey Rogg, second-year law student. "Cases where a sign is not visible because it's covered by trees or they put up new signs and they couldn't be seen are tickets that get dismissed."
The law students say they take the cases seriously. Rogg said he hes spent six to seven hours preparing for his film on the subject.
The attorneys say they get used to the work and look for precedents in similar cases so research does not take as long.
A case can take less than one hour to prepare, he said. Jeff Wildin, a first-year law student who appealed a
Wildin received a ticket during a basketball game. Wildin said he did not know parking regulations on game days differed from those on normal days.
parking ticket, he thought his attorney represented him well even though he lost.
He is appealing the decision to Court En Banc, the final court of the parking ticket appeal process.
"I, in good faith, tried to park legally, yet I'm being penalized for parking legally," he said. "All those together is not justice."
Many people may not be aware of the fact that they can appeal a ticket.
As a law student, Wildin said he had easier access to information and probably knew his rights better than other students.
The parking department wrote an estimated 49,000 tickets that could be appealed in 1991. That number went down from 1990 and 1989 when an estimated 56,000 and 62,000 tickets were issued, respectively.
The number decreased because the department quit giving tickets for some violations such as backing into a parking stall or having mutilated stickers, said Donald Kearns, parking director.
The key to winning a case is to prove in good faith that someone received a ticket when he or she tried to park legally, said David Powell, a second-year law student who serves as chief justice of the court.
Powell said that every year, changes needed to be made in KU parking and that sometimes when new changes had been made, the court forgave a lot of the early tickets.
Powell said most appealed cases were legitimate. But he stressed that no matter what the reason, tickets for parking in handicap zones or fire zones would not win an appeal.
Cheney faces rubber check explanations
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Dick Cheney faced the cameras yesterday to explain how he had overdrawn his account at the infamous House bank.
Like 354 other current and former House members, Cheney has been caught up in the rubber check scandal of 1992.
"It is with considerable anger and frustration that I find myself here today." he told a roomful of reporters.
To Cheney's left was an easel displaying his bank statement from Oct. 3, 1988, and enlargements of two books he says he now realizes were bad.
One of at least 21 bad checks, Cheney said, went to付 his car insurance — $266 to State Farm. Another paid his American Express bill of $1,945. And one to his dry cleaner was for $12. In all, the checks, written over the nine months before Cheney left the House to become secretary in March 1989, added up to more than $10,000.
Cheney sought to convey the message that he strives to live within his means.
"My wife and I have always lived within our means," he said. "I am one of those people who do not like to owe anybody any money. We do not buy things on credit."
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