The City of Toronto has withdrawn approximately 880,000 disputed parking tickets because it would cost too much time and money to put them through the court system.

In a statement released on Sunday, the city said "the number represents less than three per cent of all parking tickets issued between 2002 and 2014, and includes tickets for which a trial request had been submitted or a retrial ordered but no trial was yet scheduled."

While the unpaid tickets total an estimated $20 million, the city said the cost of bringing each case to court “would have exceeded $23 million,” making it more worthwhile to cancel the fines.

A city lawyer went to court to withdraw the tickets on Friday.

The time frame in which the ticket disputes could have been resolved also contributed to the decision to withdraw the tickets, the city said.

“The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ensures the right to a trial within a reasonable amount of time, historically 12 to 16 months for parking tickets,” the statement said, adding that the city seeks to “avoid pursuing tickets that have exceed the time frame and have no reasonable prospect of conviction.”

The unpaid $20 million will not affect the city’s budget, the statement said, because the potential cost of tickets that may be withdrawn or remain unpaid is included in the city’s budget each year.

Drivers can find out if their parking tickets were withdrawn by entering the parking infraction number or driver’s licence number into the city’s parking ticket lookup tool