It’s the parking ticket that just won’t go away.

In 2005, Mahmood-Reza Arab was ticketed for being too close to a fire hydrant. He contested the ticket, but in the eight years since still hasn’t had a court date scheduled.

He’s not been found guilty, hasn’t paid the $100 fine and can’t believe that he’s had to wait this long to argue his case.

“All these years, I’ve been calling,” he said. “It’s not right.”

Arab is not alone. The City of Toronto has a growing backlog of contested tickets.

Related:

· Parking tickets in Toronto: An analysis

· $350 ticket issued during record storm raises questions over private parking tickets

· Parking tickets: 1 in 4 is dismissed in Toronto

According to a staff report written this spring, of the more than 350,000 people who requested a trial for parking infractions in 2012, nearly 74,000 cases didn’t get heard. That means that more than 20 per cent of people who contest their tickets will have to wait till next year — or longer.

Despite having five courtrooms dedicated to parking tickets, the city can’t keep up with all the cases, and an increasing number each year are put off.

City staff identified the problem in a 2011 report, which showed that the number of people fighting tickets has skyrocketed in the past decade.

Only 2.5 per cent of parking ticket recipients requested a trial in 2004. In 2012, that number had shot up to almost 13 per cent.

Court date notices are typically mailed out six to eight months after the ticket is issued, and trials are usually within 18 months, wrote city spokesperson Kazia Fraser in an email.

“There can be exceptions that shorten or lengthen this time frame — for example, having courtroom space available along with the officer who issued the ticket being available,” Fraser wrote.

But the eight years Arab has waited seems to be an extreme example that no one can explain.

Since receiving the ticket, he’s moved twice and had to go downtown in person each time to inform the city and ensure a court notice isn’t sent to an old address.

Arab would like to see a maximum wait time for court dates introduced, beyond which tickets would be cancelled.

“I’m a computer programmer. I’m very organized and very disciplined,” he said. “It’s my right to be heard in court, and they just don’t care.”

“Somebody has to answer. Somebody has to be responsible,” he said.

City statistics show that fewer than 40 per cent of people who contest their parking tickets bother to show up for their court date. Of those who show, many are convicted but receive a reduced fine.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

To discourage people from contesting tickets, city staff recommended implementing a fixed fine system in 2011, which would prohibit fine reductions in court and tack on a $12.75 court fee when the trial results in a conviction.

Fraser says the proposal is being reviewed and could be law before the end of the year.

The city is still receiving payment for tickets issued as far back as 1989 and expects eventually to collect 80 per cent of the face value of all tickets issued.