A local lawyer is set to appear before the courts to contest tens of thousands of parking tickets not signed by Montreal's parking inspectors, thanks to the city's new electronic ticketing system.
Marie-Helene Lamoureux will face the Quebec Superior Court in November to argue that the city's new parking tickets are unlawful because they are not signed.
"It's a very important document because we have to pay a fine... It's a legal document and for it to be available, it should be signed." said Lamoureux.
She says tickets are legal documents which could have enough power to impound a car and all legal documents must be signed.
However Montreal's Municipal Court disagrees.
Lamoureux's case was thrown out of Montreal Municipal Court in June, when Judge Pierre G. Bouchard ruled that printing up the tickets with the identification of the issuing agent was enough to prove that a parking infraction had taken place.
If Lamoureux is successful, the case could prove costly for the city, because it would open the door to attestations from anyone who had received a similarly unsigned parking ticket within the past year and a half, when the new system was implemented.
The city will not comment on this case because it is before the courts.
Lamoureux says if she wins, she'll launch a class action suit seeking repayment for every unsigned ticket the city has given out in the past year and a half.
If successful, that would cost the city of montreal tens of millions of dollars.
