QuestionI was visiting my friend in Livermore, CA. We returned from dinner to find the tow guy getting ready to hook my car up. He had only just arrived and hadn't even begun to connect my car to the truck. We were able to amicably resolve the situation by me paying a reduced fee and just moving my car, but I was wondering what the law is that governs what rights I have in this situation? Would I have been within my rights to just get in my car and drive away? I'm unable to find anything like this on the DMV page.
AnswerThis is one of the "gray areas" of the law... The DMV pages do talk about the "drop fee" and such, but a show up fee is not mentioned...
Now not to say that somewhere, buried in the bunches of laws, double talk and such is a provision for this. Nor is there to say that someone "determining what they think the law says" does it become legal or illegal...
I have heard both sides of this issue and talked to several towers from California about the laws out there... One thing I have noticed is also that several Cities also have additional laws regarding towing issues on the books which are harder to find on line.
As to getting in the vehicle and driving off, well you might of been legal but it is also a civil matter in most cases and the police would not help much if they were called...
And add in the fact that most of the tow trucks today which are used for removal of illegally parked vehicles are of such design and such that you have about 15 seconds to get it out of the way from the time that the tow truck arrives... I used to drive one which when I dropped it in reverse to go get the vehicle, the time it took to hook up the vehicle was also about the same time it took to shift it back to drive...
But it sounds like it was something which you worked out, and no problems happened other than it being a bit less costly than having the vehicle towed and you having to get rides to somewhere else and pay a lot more.
