Drivers in the United Kingdom who are facing parking tickets now have a brilliant solution: this new website put up by a British teenager that promises to generate "winning appeals to parking tickets" in seconds, for those who don't have the time and the legal knowledge to appeal.
Joshua Browder, an 18-year-old computer science student, came up with the idea of the website as his "pet project" that aims to automatically produce appeal letters – using effective defenses employed in the past as templates – which can then be submitted to the local council. He called the site DoNotPay.co.uk.
What made Browder – who is set to leave London to study at Stanford – develop the website is that he has been a victim of parking tickets himself.
"Over the past two years, I have received around thirty parking tickets for trivial reasons," recounted the tech genius. "I have had to spend around one hundred hours of valuable study time writing appeals to these tickets, many of which have been successful."
Motorists who feel they've been dealt an injustice will only need to sign up using their existing email. The user will then be redirected to a page to choose from a list of reasons why the ticket should not have been issued.
Some of the scenarios listed on the website include issues with signage, parking during an urgent hospital visit, or missing details on the issued tickets.
If, for instance, the appeal is based on an emergency appointment, the user should include other details, like the hospital name.
Other details to input in the system are the penalty charge number, the name of the street where the ticket was issued, as well as the name of the driver. The online system can also link the user to Google Street View to enable him or her to attach a picture of where the incident happened.
To date, reports say, the website has already helped drivers to avoid around £1,200, or around $1,800, in fines. Reports also noted that DoNotPay.co.uk has already received about 6,500 driver's complaints since it was introduced a month ago.
"The biggest technical challenge for me was not creating the site, but ensuring that it remains capable of accommodating large amounts of traffic!" Browder told the press.
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