A District resident with $4,000 in unpaid parking and camera tickets is not unusual. The tickets double after 30 days, the DMV refuses to renew the registration, and once two or more tickets are overdue the car is eligible for a boot. Clients ask whether bankruptcy clears the slate. The answer depends entirely on which chapter.
Chapter 7: fines to the District survive
11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(7) excepts from a Chapter 7 discharge any "fine, penalty, or forfeiture payable to and for the benefit of a governmental unit" that is not compensation for actual pecuniary loss. A DC parking ticket, a speed or red-light camera notice, and the doubling penalty on each are exactly that. The District is a governmental unit; the ticket is a fine. Chapter 7 does not touch them.
What Chapter 7 does discharge are the charges around the fine that are not themselves penalties. A towing and storage bill from a private tow company is an ordinary debt. Collection agency fees added by a contractor are generally dischargeable. A civil judgment from a car accident is dischargeable unless it arose from driving while intoxicated, which 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(9) excepts separately.
Chapter 13: the tickets are discharged
Chapter 13 has its own, shorter list of debts that survive discharge, at 11 U.S.C. § 1328(a). Section 523(a)(7) is not on it. The only fines that survive a completed Chapter 13 plan are, under § 1328(a)(3), "restitution, or a criminal fine, included in a sentence on the debtor's conviction of a crime."
DC parking tickets and automated camera tickets are civil infractions adjudicated by the DMV, not criminal convictions. They are dischargeable in Chapter 13. The District's claim is paid as a general unsecured claim through the plan, usually at a small percentage, and the balance is discharged when the plan completes.
Criminal traffic charges prosecuted in DC Superior Court (reckless driving, DUI, leaving the scene) produce criminal fines, and those survive both chapters.
The boot, the tow, and the registration hold
The District's practical enforcement tools are a boot after two or more overdue tickets, a tow after that, and a refusal to renew registration while tickets are outstanding. Bankruptcy interacts with each through the automatic stay and through 11 U.S.C. § 525(a).
During the case. The automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362(a) stops collection of pre-petition debts, including booting or towing a car to collect pre-petition tickets. A car booted before filing is property of the estate, and the District should release it on request. Tickets issued after filing are post-petition debts and are not stayed.
Registration renewal. Section 525(a) prohibits a governmental unit from denying or refusing to renew a license, permit, or similar grant "solely because" the person has not paid a debt that is dischargeable or was discharged. In a Chapter 13, where the tickets are dischargeable, that section requires the DMV to renew the registration even though the tickets are unpaid, once the plan is on file. In a Chapter 7 it does not help, because the tickets are not dischargeable in that chapter.
Expect to explain § 525(a) to the DMV. A letter from counsel with the case number and a copy of the plan is usually enough; when it is not, the bankruptcy court can enforce the section by motion.
Is Chapter 13 worth it for tickets alone?
Rarely. A Chapter 13 costs more than a Chapter 7 and takes three to five years. It becomes the right answer when ticket debt sits alongside a car loan to reorganize, a mortgage or condo arrears to cure, or tax debt, or when a boot is about to cost you the car you drive to work. For ticket debt by itself, the DMV's own payment plan and its periodic amnesty programs are the first stop.
Frequently asked questions
I got tickets in Maryland and Virginia too. Same rules? Yes. A fine payable to Montgomery County or the Commonwealth of Virginia is a fine to a governmental unit under § 523(a)(7) and is treated exactly like a District ticket in each chapter.
The tickets were issued when someone else was driving my car. The registered owner is liable for parking and camera tickets in the District regardless of who was driving. That does not change the bankruptcy analysis, but it is a reason to contest tickets promptly at the DMV rather than let them double.
Will Chapter 13 stop the District from selling my booted car? Yes, if the car was booted for pre-petition tickets. Filing stays the sale, and the District must release the vehicle. File before the auction date, not after.
The DC means test calculator takes three minutes and tells you which chapter your income supports.