Parking ticket lien avoidable in bankruptcy case

Trial Notebook

By Steven P. Garmisa

Hoey & Farina

Posted May 16, 2022 12:39 PM

During Marcella Mance’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, she wanted to avoid the $12,245 impoundment lien the City of Chicago asserted on her $3,000 car based on the notion it was a “judicial lien” — under 11 U.S.C Sec. 522(f) — that impaired her personal property exemption.The city, pointing to the municipal code’s provisions for impounding vehicles when parking tickets are unpaid, insisted it had a non-avoidable “statutory lien.”Mance won in the bankruptcy and district courts. Looking at noncontroversial examples of “judicial” …

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