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[JoshuaFH]

I got a ticket for parking on my own lawn today, and I've been searching around the internet, looking for a website that'll tell me in detail Michigan's parking laws, but I can't find one.

Can anyone help me out with this? I don't think it's illegal to park on my own lawn, but I can't find any info to prove the police wrong.

[Heron TSG]

Not sure about where you live, but couldn't you go to the nearest courthouse and look it up? I'm sure they have to TELL you the law if you don't know it.

[Mr Tk]

Depends on how obscure the by-laws in are. You may have to go to the Michigan City Council themselves and see if you can get the information.

[Luckk]

While I'm not sure if this is even the reason you got a ticket, but it might be from one of the things listed here under Section 6:

http://www.michigantownships.org/mta9140468.asp

[Aqizzar]

I can sort of answer this for you - there is a bylaw for EVERYTHING.  If an officer wants to, there is essentially nothing you could be doing or not properly doing that you can't be written some citation for.

If you try to fight this, and you admit that your car was indeed on your lawn, you will lose.
If you try to fight this, and deny the violation, it will be your word against the officer's, and you will lose.
If there is indeed no law or bylaw or whatever against parking on your lawn, and you try to present this argument yourself, you will lose because the judge won't give you the time of day.
If there is indeed no law against this, and you want the judge to listen to that, you'll have to hire an attorney, who will probably cost more than the citation would have anyway.

What I'm saying is, you were boned the moment the officer laid eyes on you.  So get ready to suck it up, lose a lot of mornings in court, and either pay the ticket as soon as you can, or drag it out and pay it later.

[HAMMERMILL]

Actually contesting a traffic ticket is a good way to avoid paying for it.

Almost always, the police officer that issued the citation simply will not show up for the court hearing. If the officer doesn't show up, the cititation is null and void.

Policemen have lives too and in the time it takes them to drop everything to go to court with you, they could fine 5 more people that likely will pay. Its not like he's getting a cut of the fine or anything.

[Virex]

I'm prety sure there are no countries that directly prohibit you from parking on your own lawn (except for communist countries, but then, the concept of own lawn doesn't apply there), unless parking your car there would cause potential danger to others (car being too close to a fire hydrant for example). The officer probably tought it was either a public lawn or you were blocking someone elses driveway.

[sneakey pete]

Policemen have lives too and in the time it takes them to drop everything to go to court with you, they could fine 5 more people that likely will pay. Its not like he's getting a cut of the fine or anything.

They *have* to show up, its their job. Its required of them.

[HAMMERMILL]

Unless they get a subpoena to show up to court, its not. They can show up if they want to, they can tell their supervisor that they need to go to court, they will not get paid, but the union rep won't let them get fired for skipping work to contest a 40$ parking fine either.

Chances are, Officer Friendly is just going to leave his 200$ Wal-Mart suit in the closet and go to work.

Nobody has to show up to court unless the court requests it and unless the judge has a wild-eyed vendetta against the officer issuing the citation, its not going to happen.

[Sappho]

I've had friends who've gotten out of paying for tickets plenty of times because the officer didn't show up.

On the other hand, if they do show up and you lose, they'll make you pay even more than your ticket was for as a fine for "wasting the court's time."  I had a $40 ticket cost me $65 because of this.

[Muz]

In Malaysia, if you pay a ticket late, or have a lot of parking violations, sometimes your fine goes down by half. Yes, you get a fricking discount for being a bad citizen. If you're really lucky, some idiot who just gets elected as state minister will cancel all of the parking fines in the state as a reward for the people who voted him in.

So if I ever got a ticket, I'd pay the fine because it's the easy thing to do. I heard that some police accept phone numbers as bribes too. And failing that, if you have some obscure rule that nobody's heard about, I'd just ignore the fine. I did that once and it went away forever (some $5 fine for wearing jeans to a government office). But yeah, ignoring the law doesn't work so well in a first world country.

[DJ]

Over here in Bosnia it's cheapest to just bribe the cop. Once I got away with a 10€ bribe for an incident that would cost me my licence (for a month).

If you're a foreigner, though, you'll need to offer a MUCH larger bribe. Quintuple that if you drive an expensive car.

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Over here in Bosnia it's cheapest to just bribe the cop. Once I got away with a 10€ bribe for an incident that would cost me my licence (for a month).

If you're a foreigner, though, you'll need to offer a MUCH larger bribe. Quintuple that if you drive an expensive car.

Well, same like here, except in the countryside(THERE ARE MANY COUNTRYSIDE) you get the 'foreigner effect' when your car's plate is from the mother city / capital.

[Vester]

In Philippine Islands, cop bribes you!

Actually, the traffic cops around here aren't liable to stop you even if you do something like running a red light.

Unless it's lunch time.

The bribe I usually end up giving is about P100 (which is roughly $2), for traffic violations.

Over here in Bosnia it's cheapest to just bribe the cop. Once I got away with a 10€ bribe for an incident that would cost me my licence (for a month).

If you're a foreigner, though, you'll need to offer a MUCH larger bribe. Quintuple that if you drive an expensive car.

Well, same like here, except in the countryside(THERE ARE MANY COUNTRYSIDE) you get the 'foreigner effect' when your car's plate is from the mother city / capital.

Where I live, if you're stopped by cops and you look Japanese/Korean, you are screwed. They immediately try and take advantage of you. Same goes if you're non-Asian, although they're easier on, say, Pakistanis than they are on others.

[Peewee]

I got a ticket for parking on my own lawn today, and I've been searching around the internet, looking for a website that'll tell me in detail Michigan's parking laws, but I can't find one.

Can anyone help me out with this? I don't think it's illegal to park on my own lawn, but I can't find any info to prove the police wrong.

Yo! Another wolverine! *waves*

There aren't any state laws about parking on your own lawn, and in fact, there aren't any state laws about any driving you do on private property! So long as you don't hurt anyone, what you can do is all up to city hall.
Whichever city/township you live in might have some ordinance about parking on your own lawn, so good luck finding out.