DENVER — Contact Denver7 has been exposing predatory towing for years, and after Colorado's new towing law was passed, a group of DU law students want to make sure people know their rights after being towed.
The Towing Bill of Rights that went into effect in August is supposed to give people more power against predatory towing, capping charges to get your car back and requiring 24-hour notice before some tows.
Now, a group of University of Denver Law students made it their mission last semester to study the new towing law and break it all down in an app. The idea is that if your car is being towed or just after your car is towed, you can go online to the Towing Rights Advisor for Colorado for a one-stop-shop: learn your rights, get connected to resources and fight predatory tows by filing complaints.
There will be an English and a Spanish version, and the creators plan to have the app finished and live by the end of January.
"I hope that it gives Coloradans a sense of empowerment that when their car has been towed, they're not helpless, that there are steps that they can take to get their car back, to file a complaint, to not feel like they've been preyed upon," said Will Denney, a third year law student at DU who helped create the app.
For this project, DU is partnering with the Community Economic Defense Project, which is providing some financial assistance to Coloradans who can not afford to immediately pay the $60 (or 15%) to get their car back after a tow.
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