Appeals

Modified on Fri, 23 Feb at 3:37 PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Overview

Passport’s Enforcement portal offers an appeal citation feature that provides both violators and municipalities with a fair and transparent process to handle disputed citations. This feature creates a comprehensive enforcement product.

The adjudication process begins after a citation has been appealed or after it has been entered into the hearing flow.

Both appeals and hearings can be initiated by the violator (via RMCPay) or by an administrator (via Passport’s portal).

This article will provide instructions for navigating appeals and hearings within Passport’s portal.

Benefits

Violators

The appeal citation feature provides violators with the ability to contest citations that they believe have been incorrectly issued. Violators can submit evidence and documentation that support their claim (e.g., photographs, statements, or receipts). If needed, violators can request an appeal hearing.

Municipalities

Municipalities can review appeals, adjust citations, and send decision letters within our platform.

Our system offers municipalities the following options:

  • Accept the appeal (and dismiss the violation)

  • Decline the appeal and reset the escalation schedule

  • Decline the appeal with no reset and require the violator to pay the original citation plus additional fees

If needed, municipalities can offer a temporary adjustment to violators. Regardless of what the municipality chooses, the violator will receive a letter with the municipality's decision.  

Use Cases

Violators

A violator could decide to appeal a parking citation for many reasons:

  • Incorrect Citation. If the violator feels that the parking sign was unclear, the meter was malfunctioning, or the parking enforcement officer made a mistake in issuing the citation.

  • Unfair or Unjust Citation. If the violator parked for a few minutes or they parked because of an emergency situation.

  • Financial Hardship. The fine amount would cause a financial burden for the violator, especially if they are on a fixed income or have other financial obligations.

  • Mitigating Circumstances. The violator may have extenuating circumstances such as a medical emergency or a vehicle breakdown.

  • Leniency or Reduction of Penalty. Request for leniency or a penalty reduction based on the violator’s good driving record or if they have previously paid similar violations.

Municipalities

A municipality could allow violators to appeal a citation for many reasons:

  • Fairness. Allowing violators to appeal their citations ensures that the process is fair and just. It gives people an opportunity to present their side of the story and to contest any errors or mistakes that may have been made in issuing the citation.

  • Compliance. Allowing appeals may encourage compliance with parking regulations since it shows the  municipality’s willingness to listen and to address concerns raised by drivers.

  • Revenue. Parking citations provide a significant source of revenue for many municipalities. Allowing appeals can help ensure that citations are issued correctly and fairly, which increases the likelihood that the citations will be paid.

  • Customer Service. Providing a mechanism for appeals is a way for municipalities to demonstrate good customer service and to show that they value their constituents.

  • Legal Requirements. In some cases, municipalities may be required by law to provide a process for appealing parking citations.

Process an Appeal

When you first open the Process Appeals page, all existing appeals will be displayed. Use the Search and/or Filter features to select individual appeals to process.

Use the Generate CSV button to download all existing appeals.

Instructions

  1. Select Enforcement > Process Appeals

  2. Enter Citation Number in the Search by Citation Number field

    1. Note: Select the filter buttons to narrow your results

      1. All

        1. Appeals

        2. Hearings

      2. All

        • Note: This option will only display if the multi-level appeal privilege has been set up. Read the “Multi-Level Appeals” section of this article for more information.

        • First Level

        • Second Level

    2. Note: Use the More Filters option to narrow the results

      1. Name

      2. LPN

      3. Appeal Reason (drop-down menu)

      4. Payment Status (drop-down menu)

      5. Violation Type (drop-down menu)

      6. Citation Status (drop-down menu)

      7. Officer (drop-down menu)

      8. Citation Tag (drop-down menu)

    3. Select Apply Filters

  3. Select the Citation

    • Note: If this appeal was created by mistake, select Remove Appeal

Citation Details

View existing citation details.

  1. Select the […] action menu button to make changes to this appeal.

    1. Add Note

    2. Adjust

    3. Change Status

    4. Generate PDF

    5. Tag Citation

    6. View

      1. This item allows you to view the Citation Details without navigating to the Manage Citations page

History

View all citations received by this vehicle.

Appeal Details

View existing appeal details.

  • Scheduled Hearing Date

  • Description

  • Reason for Appeal

  • Appeal Source

Appeal Evidence

View existing appeal evidence.

Create a Response

  1. Select an Appeal Decision

  2. Select a Reason 

  3. Enter a Response (Optional)

  4. Select an Appeal Letter Recipient

    1. To add an offender, select the […] action menu button, then select Add Offender

    2. To edit the existing offender, select the […] action menu button, then select Edit Offender

  5. If desired, select the Create a PDF of Response checkbox

  6. Select Submit

Manage Virtual Hearings

Overview

Schedule, process, and notify violators about virtual hearings through Passport’s portal.

Instructions

Create a Hearing Request

  1. Select Enforcement > Manage Citations

  2. Select Enforcement > Manage Citations

  3. Enter search criteria

  4. Select Search to display the results

  5. Select a Citation

  6. Select the […] action menu button

  7. Select Appeal Citation

  8. Select Yes to Is this a hearing request?

  9. Select Virtual to Enter a Hearing Type

  10. Enter a Reason

  11. Complete the form

  12. Select Save

View, Edit, Reschedule, or Delete a Hearing Request

  1. Select Enforcement > Manage Citations

  2. Enter search criteria

  3. Select Search to display the results

  4. Select a Citation

  5. Select the Actions menu on the Appeals card

  6. Select Edit Appeal

    1. or: Select Delete Appeal

    2. or: Select Edit Hearing Date

    3. or: Select Remove Hearing Date

  7. Complete the form, then select Save

Schedule a Hearing

Overview

Instructions: Manually Schedule a Hearing Date

Note: Before you view this page, you have already made a Hearing Request on the Citation itself. Citations that display on this page will meet this criteria: the citation must have been appealed and the user must have selected “Yes” to “Is this a Hearing Request?”.

  1. Select Enforcement > Schedule Hearings

  2. Select the Hearing Type

    1. In Person

    2. Virtual

    3. Note: After you select a hearing type, the page will display all citations that have requested that specific hearing type.

  3. Enter a Hearing Date

  4. Enter a Hearing Time

  5. Enter the Max Number of Hearings

    1. Example: This page displays 10 In-Person hearing requests. If I enter “7” in this field, the first 7 requests in the list of 10 will get scheduled, and the other 3 will remain as requests and will not be scheduled.

  6. Select Schedule Hearings

  7. View existing Hearing Requests

    1. To narrow your search, add one (or more) Filters

      1. Source of Hearing 

      2. Hearing Reason 

  8. View Schedule Summary, then select Confirm Schedule

Instructions: Automatically Schedule a Hearing Date

  1. Select Enforcement > Schedule Hearings

  2. Select the Hearing Type

    1. In Person

    2. Virtual

  3. Enter a Hearing Date

  4. Enter a Hearing Time

  5. Enter the Max Number of Hearings

  6. Select the Schedule All checkbox

    • Note: This option would automatically schedule hearings for all citations that meet the filter criteria. Any citations not included in the filters would not receive a hearing.

  7. Select Schedule Hearings

  8. View existing Hearing Requests

    1. To narrow your search, add one (or more) Filters

      1. Source of Hearing 

      2. Hearing Reason 

  9. View Schedule Summary then select Confirm Schedule

Decline Appeal with Adjustment

Overview

The Decline Appeal with Adjustment flow enables clients and internal users to apply a temporary adjustment to an appealed citation. The adjustment can expire at a specific date or remain permanent. 

  • If the violator pays the adjusted amount within the set time frame, the citation will be settled without additional escalation. 

  • If the violator does not pay the adjustment amount within the set time frame, the citation will revert back to its original balance plus any accrued escalation. 

Note: These flows are not built to work with multi-level appeals and have not been tested with multi-level appeals.

If the violator pays the adjusted amount within the adjustment period, they will not face any escalation. However, if they do not pay within the set period, the adjustment will expire, and the citation will revert to the original fee. At this point, the violator will be subject to the original amount plus any accrued escalation from the date the adjustment was made by the operator.

The escalation process for the adjustment can be configured to start from when the adjustment is offered, when it expires, or when the violator receives the citation.

Additional Notes

  • Temporary adjustments cannot be negative

  • Expiration Dates cannot be set to past dates

  • If you want the void status applied via this process to freeze the violation for its duration, the violation type MUST have the freeze_escalation_while_void property enabled. This can be done via the OMW violation type edit menu.

  • The add_frozen_days option should be set to 0 for the reduction void type

  • Operators can configure different verbiage for the Appeal Decision/ Reason fields in the Appeal Drawer (vs. using Reduced). The Operator will need to ensure the new verbiage is a type of Decline for compatibility with this flow.

Instructions

  1. Select Enforcement > Process Appeals

  2. Locate the desired citation

  3. Select desired citation to open the appeal drawer for that citation

  4. Complete the Response form by selecting Reduced for Appeal Decision and Reduced for Reason

    • Note: The Adjust Citation option will display after you select “Reduced” for Appeal Decision and Reason.

  5. Select the Adjust Citation checkbox to apply an increase (or decrease) to the selected appeal, then enter the desired amount. 

    • Note: The Discount option will be selected by default.

  6. Select the appropriate Adjustment Code in the dropdown list. 

    • Note: Only the Magistrate Adjustment option should be selected during this flow.

  7. Select an Expiration Date

    • No date. Temporary adjustment will permanent

    • Today’s date. Adjustment will expire at midnight (in violator’s local time zone)

    • Future Date. Allows the operator to set a custom date

      • Note: This will be the default option selected and will be set to 90 days

  8. Review, then select Submit

    • A notification will be displayed upon successful submission

The adjusted amount will be reflected on the appealed citation. The violator will receive two emails:

  • Message that indicates that their appeal has been declined 

  • Message that indicates that they have been offered a temporary adjustment; a letter will be attached

Note: If the adjusted amount is not paid within the set time frame, the citation will revert back to the original amount plus any accrued escalation.

Multi-Level Appeals / Hearings

Overview

This feature provides you with the option of a two-step approval process when accepting or declining an appeal or hearing. This feature enables you to have more control over your adjudication process, particularly in cases where you may want a supervisor to confirm that the correct decision has been made for certain violation types.

Since you can specify that all the first-level decisions will be accepted at the end of the day, you can control that all appeal-related communication will be sent at a certain time (vs. throughout the day as these first-level decisions are being made).

Note: To enable this feature, the appropriate privileges must be set up.

Note: The Violation Type must be set up as a multi-level appeal.

Benefits

This feature provides you with more control over your adjudication process. For example, for certain violation types, you may want a supervisor to verify a decision before passing the decision on to the parker.

You will also be able to accept all first-level decisions at the end of the day. This ability is helpful when you want all communication on appeals go out at a certain time rather than throughout the day as first-level decisions are made.

Instructions

  1. Select Enforcement > Process Appeals

  2. Enter Citation Number in the Search by Citation Number field

    1. Note: Select the filter buttons to narrow your results

      1. All

        1. Appeals

        2. Hearings

      2. All

        • Note: This option will only display if the multi-level appeal privilege has been set up. 

        • First Level

        • Second Level

    2. Note: Use the More Filters option to narrow the results

      1. Name

      2. LPN

      3. Appeal Reason (drop-down menu)

      4. Payment Status (drop-down menu)

      5. Violation Type (drop-down menu)

      6. Citation Status (drop-down menu)

      7. Officer (drop-down menu)

      8. Citation Tag (drop-down menu)

    3. Select Apply Filters

  3. Select the Citation

    • Note: If this appeal was created by mistake, select Remove Appeal

  4. Override option: select Make Second Level Decision

    1. Note: When you make a second-level decision, that will be the final decision.

  5. No Override option: select Make First Level Decision

    1. Note: When you make a first-level decision, another user will have the opportunity to review and make a second-level decision. 

    2. Note: After you select Submit First level Decision, this record will move to the Second Level tab, indicating that the Appeal/Hearing requires a second-level decision.

    3. Select the item on this tab

    4. Select Accept First Level Decision

      1. Note: This action confirms the first-level decision and serves as the final decision. 

      2. Note: This action removes the item from the Process Appeals queue.

Citation Details

View existing citation details.

  1. Select the […] action menu button to make changes to this appeal.

    1. Add Note

    2. Adjust

    3. Change Status

    4. Generate PDF

    5. Tag Citation

    6. View

History

View all citations received by this vehicle.

Appeal Details

View existing appeal details.

  • Scheduled Hearing Date

  • Description

  • Reason for Appeal

  • Appeal Source

Appeal Evidence

View existing appeal evidence.

Create a Response

  1. Select an Appeal Decision

  2. Select a Reason 

  3. Enter a Response (Optional)

  4. Select an Appeal Letter Recipient

    1. To add an offender, select the […] action menu button, then select Add Offender

    2. To edit the existing offender, select the […] action menu button, then select Edit Offender

  5. If desired, select the Create a PDF of Response checkbox

  6. Select Submit

Overrides

If an appeal has received a first-level decision, and if the user has been assigned the Override privilege, then the user will see different options when they open the Appeal drawer.

  • If the second-level user agrees with the first-level decision, they can select the Accept First Level Decision button. 

  • If the second-level user does not agree with the first-level decision already made, then the user can select the Override Decision link in the Response bar.

    • When Override Decision has been selected, the page refreshes with the original selections. At this point, the user can make desired changes.

    • After making changes, select Make Second Level Decision

      • Note: This selection will override the first-level decision and will act as the final decision. 

      • Note: This action removes the items from the Process Appeals queue.

Mass Adjudication

If an appeal has received a first-level decision, and the if user has been assigned the Mass Adjudicate privilege, and the Second Level Appeals and/or Second Level Hearings privileges, then the user will see the Mass Adjudicate button on the Second Level tab. 

This feature allows a user to quickly confirm the existing first-level decisions.

  1. Select Enforcement > Process Appeals, then select the Second Level filter within the Appeals section of the page

  2. Select Mass Adjudicate

  3. Review the Confirm Decision Approval modal, then select Submit

    • Note: This selection will confirm the first-level decision and will act as the final decision. 

    • Note: This action removes the items from the Process Appeals queue.

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