Thousands of Chicago motorists ticketed and overcharged for more than a decade for parking, city sticker and other compliance violations could be in line for nearly $104 million in refunds at City Hall's expense.Circuit Judge William Sullivan put cash-strapped Chicago firmly on the hook for $69.6 m illion in overcharges and $34 million in interest on more than a million tickets issued by the city between 2012 and 2022, after determining that the city violated state law by applying penalties that exceed a $250 cap on such fines. Sullivan’s Feb. 19 ruling also wipes out $93.8 million in fines and fees not yet collected by the city. Separating out the accumulated interest, the total in illegally assessed fines and penalties adds up to roughly $163 million. The city's Law Department issued a statement saying City Hall is considering an appeal of Sullivan's ruling.In 2012, the city raised the fine for out-of-date city sticker violations from $100 to $200, with a $200 charge for late payment.The lawsuit also lists more than a dozen offenses — including having window tinting that is too dark or parking in a loading zone — that carry penalties of at least $140 and as high as $500. Related Appeals court ruling revives Chicago ticket lawsuit Kyle Garchar, one of two named plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, racked up four city sticker violations within weeks in 2017 and 2018 while parking on the street in front of his house. Garchar said the $1,600 debt he racked up deprived him of his ability to earn money from his job as a ride-share driver, after the city notified Uber and Lyft about his unpaid tickets.“The city has tried to extract as much as they can to make up for the poor financial decisions they’ve made,” Garchar, 35, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Everyone has received a ticket they feel is not necessarily legitimate. But even if you fight it and go to administrative court, city employees are not like judges in a typical court. Unless there’s some sort of clerical error or typo or any inconsistency you can find, there’s no way to get out of it.”Garchar said drivers who tend to rack up the most tickets are “already broke” or struggling to pay bills, adding that the city has a “history of perpetuating that cycle of debt." Michael Blaha got five city sticker tickets in four weeks in 2013 — and five more in a month in 2015 — while working as a service worker searching for legal parking. He said while the city’s impending refund will not amount to “life-changing money,” he hopes it “sets a precedent.”“It’s another way of exposing the city, and how they are trying to take advantage of the people in it and basically stealing from the people," Blaha said. "It’s great that they finally have to answer to that … abuse of power.” Law department spokesperson Kristen Cabanban issued a statement saying although the city respects the "judicial process, we are actively evaluating all available legal options, including an appeal. ... This matter is not final, and the city intends to continue vigorously defending the interests of its residents. We will have no further comment while the litigation is ongoing.”The lawsuit was originally filed in 2018, the final year of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration.Nearly four years later, the city changed the law to eliminate the cap-exceeding penalties — a tacit admission that it had been breaching the $250 state limit.City attorney Mark Siegel admitted the violations during a 2022 Finance Committee. meeting. The overcharged drivers were represented by attorney Jacie Zolna, whose law firm, Myron M. Cherry Associates, won a $38.75 million settlement against the city over late fees tacked on to red-light and speed camera tickets. Zolna said there’s a reason why state law established the $250 limit when it granted Chicago the power to create a “quasi-court” system that allows city employees to serve as judge and jury, making it “nearly impossible to contest a violation.”“The trade-off that the General Assembly made was, 'OK, we will give the city the ability to adjudicate these tickets in this system that is tilted in its favor, but in exchange, you’re not going to be able to hammer people with the fines and penalties,'" Zolna said. “For a decade, citizens upheld their side of that bargain while they got railroaded every time they got one of these tickets. But the city didn’t uphold their side of the bargain. They started charging people way more than they should have.”Zolna said he has offered to settle the case for “considerably less” than $163.5 million — only to be repeatedly rebuffed.“Now the city is out of bullets,” he said. “They could try to delay and appeal. But that would just go up to the appellate court that swatted them down three years ago.” ...read more read less