You pay for parking in good faith — estimate your time, use the app, go about your day. Then, days later, a letter arrives in the mail with a photo of your car and an “invoice” for $90–$115 because you overstayed by a minute or two.

Is that legal? How are private parking operators getting drivers’ home addresses? And what happens when hidden arbitration clauses and data access collide with federal privacy law?

In this episode, we sit down with MF&H litigator Charlie Garabedian, who is leading putative class actions against private parking operators that use license-plate cameras, mass-mail penalty invoices, and allegedly access DMV records in ways that may violate the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA).

We dig into: — How these systems track entry/exit times and auto-generate “gotcha” fees — The difference between a lawful ticket and a private invoice — Why arbitration clauses on tiny parking-lot signs may be unenforceable — The consumer privacy implications of pulling DMV data — Why these cases resonate so strongly with the public

As Charlie explains, these aren’t minor annoyances — for many people, a $115 charge means choosing between paying a notice and paying for groceries. And under the DPPA, improper access to protected driver information can trigger minimum statutory damages of $2,500 per violation.