New Jersey Towing Laws - Towed illegally

[Eagle]

I just wanted to let everyone know that if you are towed from a parking lot in NJ you may be able to sue the towing company. Some of these towing companies in New Jersey are the lowest form of scum on the earth. Some of them hide and tow your car from a lot without the knowledge or consent from the owner of the lot. Then they charge you hundreds to get your car back. Many people just pay thinking they have no recourse. If you have a horror story about being illegally towed please share the story with us. Maybe someone here can help you. Thanks.

[amsterdamfats]

At Montclair State right now they have a tow truck with driver standing by to tow cars away. They have enrolled more students than the campus can accomodate. The students are charged a parking fee for parking, when at most times of the day, there does not exist enough spaces to park all the students' cars that are brought to campus. Because the students are charged a fee for parking, can they or should they expect to have a place to park on campus when they get here? Is there any legal recourse any memeber of the campus community can take to make the university stop the practice of towing cars?

[Eagle]

Well, if the school deliberatley oversold the parking permits then the school can be sued for fraud, consumer fraud and/or breach of contract. It would be interesting to know if the school was getting a cut of the towing fees and thus profiting on the situation. Here is the NJ Consumer Fraud Act http://www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/ocp/ocplaw.htm#cf1 look at section 56:8-2.2. The law applies to services as well as merchandise. This is one of the applicable sections of the Act. If I was a student who got towed I would take the school to small claims court. To sue as a group you may want to get a lawyer involved and sue as a class action.

Also, if you go to small claims court and win you can get triple damages, see section 56:8-19. Before you can sue you also need to make sure you did not sign any type of waiver when you bought the parking permit. Make sure the scool did not insert some clause like " parking spot is not guaranteeed and is available on first come first serve basis....."

Give me more details if you have them and I will look in to this further for you.

[amsterdamfats]

I was thinking more along the lines of a class action suit. I have not been towed, but it is happening everyday to students. As you may be aware from the headlines, there is much fraud and corruption at the state colleges in the state of NJ. They are run as their own little fiefdoms by the university presidents with little oversight.

[Eagle]

I am going to look in to this a little more & I will get back to you.

[Eagle]

Ok, after reviewing the NJ Consumer Fraud law, as well as other relevant case law, I think the school can be successfully sued by any student with a valid permit who is towed due to insufficient parking spots. If you know of anyone in this predicament you should have him/her send me a private message (just click on my name in upper left corner) and I may be able to help them. The arrogance of the school to screw their students like this is unexcuseable.