Legal Question in Traffic Law in Colorado

I parked my car in a local highschool parking lot in Lakewood, CO and the school had it towed away. A secretary at the Lakewood police department told me the parking lot is considered private property but I couldn't find anything on the internet confirming this.

The parking lot is not marked as private or that no overnight parking is allowed so I'm interested in fighting this in small claims court if there is no law designating the parking lot as private.

If this line does not work out for me I intend to use small claims court to reduce the cost of the towing because the (tow) company shut off its phone for 3 days, I was unable to retrieve the car, and now they want to charge me several hundred dollars for storage.

Any suggestions on how to approach this?


Asked on 1/22/14, 4:52 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Damon Cassens Waters, Kubik, and Cassens

For practical purposes, a high school is a combination of public/private. Schools in particular are allowed to control access to their grounds, for obvious reasons.

As to the issue with the tow company, you've probably got some grounds for a reduction. But you do need to do the math: is roughly three days of your life worth more, or less, than the total tow bill?

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Answered on 1/23/14, 5:44 am


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