Denver Laid Off Its Parking Magistrates: Here’s What That Means for Disputing Tickets

Disputing parking citations is about to get a lot more cumbersome in Denver.

The city’s Parking Magistrate’s Office permanently closed on August 27, when Denver County Court laid off its five magistrates as well as five other employees. It also cut twenty more positions after it was asked to reduce its budget for 2026, according to court spokesperson Carolyn Tyler.

The Parking Magistrate’s Office was responsible for resolving disputed parking citations. Without that office, Tyler says any parking disputes should fall to the Denver Department of Transportation & Infrastructure.

According to DOTI spokesperson Nancy Kuhn, however, there is “no staff” in the department “to assume the duties and roles of those magistrates.” Instead, the current citation dispute process will essentially be abolished.

This comes as city officials work to address a projected $200 million budget deficit for 2026. In August, the mayor’s office announced it had laid off 169 employees and eliminated over 600 open positions in city departments. Dozens of additional jobs were cut from independent agencies and government branches like Denver County Court.

DOTI suffered the largest number of layoffs across all city departments last month, losing 31 employees and eliminating 108 vacant positions.

“DOTI does not have staff or resources to do the work that the County Court magistrates were doing previously, which was reviewing and deciding the outcomes of contested parking tickets,” Kuhn says. “That step is now skipped, so to speak.”

What Now?

In recent years, residents have been able to fight what they consider wrongful parking citations online at denvergov.org/parking or via mail. The online portal lets users view photos of their allegedly illegally parked vehicle, review file information regarding their citation, and upload evidence indicating a ticket is unwarranted.

The court’s parking magistrates were in charge of reviewing those disputes and deciding the outcomes, providing decisions within 45 days. If a user disagreed with the magistrate’s decision, they could request a hearing in Denver County Court to have a judicial officer reconsider their case.

That online portal will be shut down by 5 p.m. Thursday, September 18, according to Tyler. The mail submission option will also be eliminated. Instead, all disputes will go directly to an in-person hearing before a Denver County Court judicial officer.

Hearings must be requested within 120 days of receiving the citation. Details about how to request a hearing will be available on the DOTI website and county court website after the portal closes.

The Parking Magistrate’s Office window and counter within the courthouse are already gone, Tyler says. Until now, residents who wanted to fight a ticket could also grab a number and wait to speak to magistrates face-to-face. Though the employees were not judges, they had the power to dismiss or reduce tickets at their discretion, which they often did following tales of woe about tree branches blocking “no parking” signs, forgetting to put on new registration stickers, and being forced to stop in tow-away zones due to car troubles.

There is still some time left to dispute tickets online, however. Complaints submitted before the portal closes on September 18 will be handled using the old process, with staff temporarily provided by the county court, Kuhn says.

So, for those who don’t want to spend their PTO fighting a parking ticket in court, the clock is ticking.