Re: A small omission?
> "It is a civil matter, and can be challenged all the way to court."
Not quite true, at least for UK council issued parking & bus lane fines.
There are two steps. What the parking fine notice tells you in big writing is that enforcement of parking fines is a civil matter, so you might reasonably assume that they have to take you to court - you know, following the normal civil procedure. But that's not the case at all. If you don't object to the council within the time limit, the council will write a certificate saying you owe them the money, and you have no right of appeal whatsoever. *Then* they take you to court to make you pay up, with the kind of civil court case that trashes your credit record. You're not allowed to challenge the parking fine in court, the entire court case is about getting you to pay up (it's about collecting on "a debt", and the certificate is unchallengable evidence that the debt exists).
So when they talk about the *enforcing* parking fines being a civil matter, they do mean that *enforcing* is done in civil court, not the actual decision about whether you have to pay. That is made by the council on a "guilty unless proven innocent" basis. And of course the council are biased because they are prosecutor, judge, jury, and they get the fine money.
Oh, and the parking fine notice says something in small text about "submissions received later than X days may be disregarded by the council", what that actually means in reality is "if your submission is later than X days IT WILL BE IGNORED AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHT OF APPEAL".
If you *do* object to the council, they will probably deny your objection and issue a certificate anyway. In that case, you can raise the same objection to a special court just for parking fines. I'm not going to call it a kangaroo court because it apparently does rule against the council reasonably often.
Oh, and the prices ratchet up - special price for paying within 14 days, higher price for paying within the following 2 weeks, even higher price once the certificate is issued, then 2-4 weeks later they start adding on court costs and (if you still don't pay) bailiff fees.
You have no right to legal counsel unless you pay for it yourself, which would be much more expensive than paying the fine at the start.
The whole thing is kangaroo justice - you're guilty unless proven innocent.