It depends on whether you are actually transporting the person the placard was issued to. Under Vehicle Code section 4461(b), a placard holder may let someone else use the placard, but only while the holder is present or in reasonable proximity, for the purpose of transporting them. Running your own errands with a relative’s placard while they stay home is not covered by that exception, and it can carry a civil penalty or a misdemeanor.

The rule in plain terms

A disabled person placard belongs to the person it was issued to, and section 4461 reaches both people when someone else uses it:

  • The placard holder. Subdivision (b) says the holder “shall not lend the placard to another person,” and a disabled person “shall not knowingly permit the use for parking purposes of the placard … by one not entitled to it.”
  • The person using it. Subdivision (c) says that, except for transporting a disabled person as subdivision (b) allows, a person “shall not display a disabled person placard that was not issued to him or her.”

There is one exception, and it is specific. The holder may permit another person to use the placard “only while in the presence or reasonable proximity of the disabled person for the purpose of transporting” them. The statute does not define “reasonable proximity” or set a distance. What it ties the exception to is transporting the disabled person: the placard follows the person it protects, not the vehicle or the family.

So the real question is not whether you are related to the placard holder, or whether they said it was fine. It is whether, at the time you park, you are actually transporting that person.

  • Covered by the exception: driving a parent to a medical appointment and using their placard while they are with you.
  • Not covered: taking a relative’s placard to run your own errand while they stay home, or continuing to use it on your own after the trip with them is over.

Civil penalty or misdemeanor

Subdivisions (b) and (c) carry the same two enforcement options. A violation is subject to a notice of parking violation carrying a civil penalty of $250 to $1,000, enforced the same way as an ordinary parking ticket, or it is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $250 to $1,000, imprisonment in county jail for up to six months, or both. The dollar range is identical either way. What changes is whether the case becomes a criminal charge with jail exposure rather than a parking citation. On a conviction, a city or county may also add a $100 penalty by local ordinance or resolution (Vehicle Code section 4461.3).

Disabled person plates and canceled placards

Two more parts of section 4461 come up in families. Subdivision (d) applies the same idea to license plates: a person using a vehicle with a disabled person plate issued to someone else may not park in a disabled space unless transporting a disabled person, with the same penalty options. Subdivision (c) also bars displaying a placard that has been canceled or revoked under Vehicle Code section 22511.6, which lets DMV cancel a placard when, among other reasons, it determines that the owner has died. The placard must be returned to DMV no later than 60 days after the holder’s death (Vehicle Code section 22511.55(d)).

The placard itself can be taken or canceled

A peace officer or parking enforcement officer can ask the person using a placard for identification and evidence that the placard was issued to them. Failing to show it creates a rebuttable presumption that the placard is being misused and that the car was parked in violation of Vehicle Code section 22507.8, the disabled parking space rule, or used other disabled parking privileges (Vehicle Code section 22511.56(a), (b)). The officer may confiscate a placard being used to benefit someone other than the person it was issued to, though not one lawfully used to transport the disabled person under section 4461(b), and once the agency verifies with DMV that the user is not the owner, DMV cancels it (section 22511.56(c), (e)). DMV may also cancel or revoke a placard when it determines that the owner committed a section 4461 or 4463 offense involving it (section 22511.6(a)(4)). Lending the placard can cost the holder the placard itself.

Fraud involving a placard is a different offense

Forging a placard, or acquiring, possessing, or selling any placard, even a genuine one, with intent to prejudice, damage, or defraud, is a separate misdemeanor under Vehicle Code section 4463(b), and the court may not suspend its penalty.

What to keep in mind

If you regularly transport a family member who holds a placard, keep the trip and the purpose lined up: use the placard on trips where you are actually bringing that person along, and treat “I had their permission” as necessary but not sufficient. If you already have a citation or a notice of violation, the facts that matter are the ones that show the trip was a transporting trip: where you were going, whether the placard holder was with you or nearby, and the timing.

If a citation or notice has already been issued, the Law Offices of David S. Chesley can walk through the specific facts with you. Call (800) 755-5174 to discuss your case.