Papers filed in parking ticket case

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 Last Tuesday morning, lawyer Charles O'Brien, his assistant Geeta Narang and their client Paulo Vena made a triumphant trip to the city courthouse: they officially filed a motion to authorize a class-action lawsuit against the City of Montreal for all the extra administrative fees tacked on to parking tickets, squeegee fines and other municipal infractions.

 "The process is now officially in motion," says O'Brien. That's the good news. The bad news? "It will be six months to a year before we are heard in court. And this is just to get the suit authorized. It's only after this first step that things really get going."

 The long wait may work against the city, however. O'Brien is encouraging all Montrealers to mark "paid under protest" every time they fork out for a fine, because he believes he can get that money refunded if he wins the case. And the longer the case drags out, the more protested tickets there will be to pay back in the end. "I intend to press the court to move as quickly as possible," O'Brien says. "It's really in no one's interest to have this case go on for years." : --Philip Preville

 

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