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Mike waited months for his chance to prove the city of Denver wrong and expose the absurdity of the city’s flawed parking dispute process.
But a week before he was scheduled to make his case in front of a Denver traffic court judge, he got an email saying his ticket was being thrown out because the right-of-way agent who wrote it couldn’t appear in court.
His case is just one of the at least 14% of parking hearings vacated because of an administrative action before the hearing, according to court data analyzed by Steve On Your Side.
It comes amid an explosion of parking court cases filed since the court cut the Parking Magistrate Office last year, which used to serve as a middleman for parking disputes before they reached court. Since the cut began, between October of last year and this month, more than 4,200 parking final hearings have been scheduled, compared to 88 in the same time period the year prior.
To dispute a parking ticket in Denver now, drivers must go to the City and County Building to schedule a court hearing, then return to court months later to argue their case in front of a judge.
Steve On Your Side has reported on the issue for months, including a story in June about a man from Grand Junction who was wrongfully issued a Denver street sweeping ticket, despite not traveling to Denver for years. When he tried to argue that the city had mistakenly written his license plate number on the ticket, he was told he’d have to travel to Denver twice – first to schedule a hearing, then a second time to argue the case. He ended up paying the ticket.
Mike, who asked 9NEWS not to use his last name, got a ticket for non-payment in Cherry Creek in April. But he had a receipt showing he did pay.
Mike’s wife, a Denver content creator who goes by the name Peaches and Diesel, brought the ticket to Steve On Your Side. Mike wanted to make a point so he scheduled a hearing.
“I wanted my day in court,” he said. “I wanted the ability to clear the record and prove that I was wrongly ticketed.”
“I knew it was open and shut, and it would be dismissed immediately, and so there was a bit of satisfaction that I get I'm missing now.”
Steve On Your Side found that 631 of the more than 4,200 cases have been vacated because of an administrative action such as an agent not appearing for court.
In the month of June alone, Steve On Your Side found that 172 cases were closed administratively.
In a statement to Steve On Your Side, a spokeswoman for Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure said vacating hearings for an agent’s absence is relatively standard practice – as agents take leave or PTO or aren’t on duty at the time of the hearing.
But it could also explain why the city has made a little less in parking fines than expected. Denver’s 2026 budget forecast growth in parking citation revenue, but data on revenue shows that since the change in the dispute process, revenue was down about $400,000 from the same time period last year.
The city has previously announced plans to implement a new dispute resolution process by late summer or early fall.
Steve Staeger is the consumer investigator for 9NEWS. Consumer Investigative Producer Anna Hewson contributed to this report. Have a tip for Steve On Your Side? Email us.
