Pay first, argue later… The Assembly reinstates the obligation to pay your parking fine before challenging it

The Assembly reinstated on Monday, in first reading, the obligation of motorists to pay their parking fine to challenge it, which had been declared unconstitutional in September 2020.

The text was approved by 45 deputies, with 23 votes against. The majority, 2 LR (out of 3) and the Liot group voted in favor, the left mainly against and the National Rally abstained.

It provides for the implementation of this reform on a date set by decree, and no later than June 30, 2026.

The transpartisan bill, presented by deputy Daniel Labaronne (Renaissance), “reestablishes the obligation of prior payment of the post-parking fee (new name of the fines, editor’s note) and its possible increase, within the limit of one limit set by decree in the Council of State, as a condition for the admissibility of the contentious appeal, except in exceptional cases.

The exceptions that remain are the theft or destruction of the vehicle, the theft of the driver’s license plate, the transfer of the vehicle, the receipt of low income, the benefit of a parking card for people with disabilities.

Pending file explosion

The Constitutional Council, faced with a priority question of constitutionality, had declared the prior payment of the fine unconstitutional due to the lack of a provision guaranteeing that the amount of the sum to be paid and its possible increase was not too high, and the absence of exceptions taking into account particular situations.

The censorship of the Constitutional Council has caused an increase in the number of pending cases, which at the end of 2022 amounted to more than 183,000 files, with “sentence periods of about two years”, a “complicated situation that also penalizes our fellow citizens.”

Speakers opposed to the text denounced a limitation of the right of appeal, in a context in which the automation of reading license plates increases fines. From 2018 to 2022, the number of fines increased from 7.8 to 13.7 million, to “reach a new revenue record of around 340 million euros”, according to André Chassaigne (PCF).