

Fixed is a web app designed to beat parking tickets. Take a photo of the ticket, choose your reason to contest the ticket, and click the button. Fixed will charge you 25% of the ticket price if they get it dismissed. I tried to sign up, but the website said they are overloaded with new customers.

"We do not have concerns if people want to use a third-party service, but there is no secret to overturning a citation if it has been issued erroneously. If someone feels that their citation was written in error, they might want to consider protesting themselves, for free," said Paul Rose, a spokesperson for San Francisco's transportation agency.

San Francisco issues about 1.5 million parking tickets every year, typically for $45 to $115 each (there are also some significantly pricier violations, such as having an expired plate or abandoning a car on a highway). The fines add up to about $95 million a year, according to Hegarty.

Of those 1.5 million citations, only five percent are actually contested. And of that small amount, only 30% are actually overturned, according to Rose. There are three rounds of appeals — two by mail and a court hearing.