By Jedidiah McKeehan

So you are in downtown Knoxville, you just need to do one errand, and it will only take a second, and you cannot find anywhere to park!  Surely it will be okay if you park in front of a fire hydrant for three minutes.  You will put your flashers on and you will be in and out of the bank in no time!

You hurry, you were literally back in two minutes and thirty-eight seconds, and, oh no!  The parking police have already begun writing you a ticket!

You beg, you plead, you tell them that you were only there for just a couple of minutes.  Look!  Look at my stopwatch on my phone I had running!

“Sorry,” they say, “I’ve already started writing.”

“Started writing?!?!?!” you think.  Who cares!

Well they might be referencing Tennessee Code Annotated Section 55-10-204, which states that, “Any person who cancels or solicits the cancellation of any traffic citation…commits a Class C misdemeanor.”

Yikes!  So, while you may think it’s totally ridiculous that they claim they cannot stop writing the ticket once they have started, they may actually have a legitimate reason for saying that.

Jedidiah McKeehan is an attorney practicing in Knox County and surrounding counties.  He works in many areas, including criminal, personal injury, landlord-tenant, probate, and estate planning. Visit attorney-knoxville.com for more information about this legal issue and other legal issues.