Legal Aid Foundation sues city of LA alleging lack of transparency in towing practices

The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit against the city of L.A. for failing to disclose data on its towing of vehicles cited for parking violations.

The organization said it first requested the data under the California Public Records Act in 2019, and has repeatedly renewed the request since then. The request reportedly was referred to the city attorney’s office in June 2024, though the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles said it has not received a response.

At the time of writing, the LADOT and city attorney's office have not responded to requests for comment from LAist.

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Why they’re filing the suit

The Legal Aid Foundation of L.A. had requested the data as part of a research initiative into the economic impact of towing, according to Shayla Myers, an attorney with the organization.

The nonprofit, as part of the statewide advocacy coalition Back on the Road, found in 2019 that towing practices can often disproportionately affect people in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

“I think it's really valid and really valuable for us to understand when the city of Los Angeles says, 'We're going to have a zero tolerance policy for violations of the municipal code to know if zero tolerance is the same in South Los Angeles as it is in Northeast LA or in the San Fernando Valley,'” Myers said.

Myers added that the foundation’s research shows that enforcing parking restrictions by towing can hurt cities’ bottom line.

“What our research found in other jurisdictions is that that practice is actually harmful to cities,” Myers said. “It costs money for cities to actually engage in that kind of debt collection practice, and it also causes folks to lose their vehicles at a disproportionate rate.”

More parking restrictions in L.A.

The lawsuit comes as the L.A. City Council has directed the L.A. Department of Transportation to increase its enforcement of illegally parked vehicles, including towing vehicles that people live in.

This move was the subject of an earlier filing from the Legal Aid Foundation of L.A., which called that move “draconian” and a violation of state law and municipal code.

The City Council has also moved to increase parking restrictions in other ways this year, including banning overnight RV parking in many parts of the city.

“The least the city can do is turn over the data that we need to analyze the impact of the policies that they are passing every day,” Myers said. “We want to know what the impact of those bans are on low-income folks. We want to know the impact on unhoused folks, and that's the data that we're seeking.”

The Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.