City and County of Denver
Audio By Carbonatix
What used to be accomplished with the click of a button now requires multiple trips to the courthouse and months of waiting, with no clear end in sight.
In September, Denver County Court shut down an online portal that previously allowed residents to challenge parking citations virtually. The portal closed along with the city’s Parking Magistrate’s Office, when the court laid off all of its magistrates due to major citywide budget cuts for 2026. The parking magistrates were in charge of reviewing online disputes and deciding the outcomes.
Now, if a vehicle is wrongfully ticketed, the driver must go to the downtown Denver City and County Building during business hours to request a hearing before a judicial officer. The driver must then return for an in-person hearing at a later date.
As of May 5, the earliest hearing date a driver could schedule to dispute a parking ticket was August 10 — more than three months out.
The massive wait time comes as hundreds of Denver residents are now trying to fight parking tickets in person. Last month, there were 269 final parking hearings scheduled, compared to just five in April 2025, according to data from Denver County Court.
The number of hearings skyrocketed after the online dispute system was eliminated, and have increase every month of this year. There were 230 hearings scheduled in March, 179 in February, and 138 in January. Last year, when the online portal was active, there was only one hearing in March, four in February and one in January 2025.
With the online portal, a driver could virtually view photos of the allegedly illegally parked vehicle, review file information regarding the citation, and upload evidence indicating that a ticket was unwarranted. Drivers only had to request an in-person hearing if they wanted a judicial officer to reconsider their case after their online dispute had been denied by a parking magistrate.
The court has made adjustments to try to accommodate the influx of hearing requests, says Carolyn Tyler, spokesperson for Denver County Court.
“As with all court operations, we monitor demand and adjust our resources accordingly,” Tyler says. “In response to increased requests for parking final hearings, we added extra docket days — now offering hearings on both Mondays and Thursdays — and we have also increased our docket sizes, as needed.”
When Can Drivers Dispute Tickets Online Again?
The Denver Department of Transportation & Infrastructure plans to establish a new online system to replace the eliminated court portal. There is still no solid launch date, however, and the estimated timeline has been pushed back repeatedly.
Now the new system is expected to launch sometime in the late summer or early fall, according to DOTI spokesperson Nancy Kuhn.
But in February, DOTI told Westword that the launch would be within the second quarter of 2026, or before the end of June. In October, DOTI said it would happen in the first or second quarter of 2026.
Kuhn previously said DOTI had “no staff” available to assume the roles of the court’s parking magistrates. DOTI suffered the largest number of layoffs across all city departments last summer, losing 31 employees and eliminating 108 vacant positions.
“Recall that the magistrates that previously reviewed online parking disputes were part of Denver County Court and were laid off by Denver County Court,” Kuhn told Westword in February. “DOTI is now working to stand up a citation review program to replace the magistrate program. …We do understand the convenience of the online dispute system, and Denver is working to offer people that option once again.”
The court has argued that it was never the appropriate venue for the parking ticket dispute system, as DOTI is responsible for parking enforcement.
The court eliminated thirty staff positions after it was asked to cut its budget by $3.2 million for 2026, according to Tyler. Ten employees were laid off, including the five parking magistrates.
“The citation dispute process is an administrative one, not a judicial one, and the court must focus on core judicial functions,” Tyler told Westword in September. “As such, the decision was made to eliminate our involvement in the administrative dispute process.”
In the meantime, drivers who believe their vehicle was wrongfully ticketed must report to the City and County Building within twenty days to schedule a hearing…which could be months down the road.
For more information about the in-person dispute process, go to denvercountycourt.org.
