Chicago Can't Hold Impounded Vehicles After Drivers File for Bankruptcy, Court Says [View all]
Thousands of Chicago motorists may be able to get their cars and trucks out of city impound lots immediately after filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy following a federal appeals court ruling that the city could no longer hold onto the vehicles.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the city’s aggressive strategy, aimed at discouraging motorists whose vehicles had been impounded over unpaid tickets from filing under Chapter 13, violated the basic protections of bankruptcy, and the city was doing so mostly to generate revenue.
“This allows Chapter 13 to accomplish its intended purpose, which is to put the property that a debtor needs to go on with the debtor’s life in the hands of the debtor,” said Eugene Wedoff, a retired chief bankruptcy judge for the Northern District of Illinois who argued the appeal on behalf of the debtors.
The opinion, which upholds orders issued by judges in four cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago, draws on reporting by ProPublica Illinois last year that showed how debt from unpaid parking and automated traffic camera tickets has led thousands of mostly black and low-income drivers to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-drivers-bankruptcies-impounded-vehicles-federal-appeals-court
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