legal defenseUnited States · Texas (Statewide)Difficulty: Medium
Necessity / Emergency Vehicle Avoidance
Tex. Penal Code § 9.22 (Necessity) is a complete defense to a Class C parking offence where the conduct was immediately necessary to avoid imminent harm. Examples: pulling into a no-parking zone to avoid an oncoming impaired driver; parking on yellow lines to escape a road-rage attacker; stopping in a fire lane to drag an unconscious person inside a hospital. Pair with police-report or witness evidence.
Legal basis
Tex. Penal Code § 9.22
Sample appeal wording
I assert the affirmative defence of necessity under Tex. Penal Code § 9.22. My conduct of [parking action] was immediately necessary to avoid imminent harm of [DESCRIBE — being run off the road, escaping a road-rage incident, transporting unconscious passenger to ER]. The harm sought to be avoided clearly outweighed, according to ordinary standards of reasonableness, the harm of an illegal parking offence. Documentation: [POLICE REPORT / 911 RECORD / WITNESS STATEMENT / HOSPITAL DISCHARGE].
Replace [PARKING DATE], [NtK DATE] etc. with your own dates before sending.
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- Tex. Penal Code § 9.22
- Bowen v. State, 162 S.W.3d 226 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005)