Unfortunately, IMHO you dont have a chance. My wife just went to court for a 50 parking ticket. She we parked our daughters car in front of the house.
Theres a sign that says ' parking this side of street' on theo other side.
I blew a gasket and told her to go to court. She did. When she got to court the parking person (not quite a cop) said 'Umm, theres a sign near the mall (3 miles away) that says 'no parking 1a to 4a in the city limits'.
She was told there are '4 such signs in the city you should have read one, and if your just visiting you should have called the portage city hall and found out if there were any special parking rules.
Now, they added those 'new' signs last summer about no parking on one side, but they couldnt throw in _1_ 'no parking at all overnight?'.
Long story short, theres always a chance if you fight it, and if you dont, theres NO chance, so always fight it, but dont get your hopes up, and dont stress over it. Fight it, assuming you already lost, and you wont be dissapointed.
Now, paybacks a bitch:
The next week, the city contactacted us by tele asking for a donation to support XXXXXXXXXX (dont remember). I said enthusiastically 'AWESOME! how does $50 sound? They said 'GREAT! Thank you so much'. I got the address, and sent them a copy of the parking ticket. I asked them to NEVER contact me again for ANY fundraising events. Ill directy my charity dollars some place else.
What comes around goes around.