--- description: Violations amount to two per household title: Missouri Town Sued Over Excess of Minor Citations image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt432e9668e90eb485/69886fc93c16395d3f45a920/saggy-pants.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Laws](/tag/laws/) ## Laws Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Missouri Town Sued After Citing Residents for Saggy Pants, Mismatched Curtains by [Josh Sanburn](/author/josh-sanburn/) ## Josh Sanburn Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 5, 2015 10:54 PM CUT  Man standing on country road, pants sagging, mid section, rear view Man standing on country road, pants sagging, mid section, rear viewGetty Images by [Josh Sanburn](/author/josh-sanburn/) ## Josh Sanburn Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 5, 2015 10:54 PM CUT In Pagedale, Mo., residents can get fined for not mowing their lawn, wearing their pants too low, or having a beer within 150 feet of a grill. But a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday is attempting to halt the town’s excess of non-traffic citations. According to the St. Louis _Post-Dispatch_, a public interest law firm has [filed a class-action suit](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lawsuit-filed-against-pagedale-for-ticketing-high-grass-and-other/article%5F35fd1f5b-5a9b-5b21-97d3-dbaa927294d7.html "undefined") to put an end to the hundreds of non-traffic fines routinely given out by the town each year. The lawsuit is in response to an [investigation](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/municipalities-ticket-for-trees-and-toys-as-traffic-revenue-declines/article%5F42739be7-afd1-5f66-b325-e1f654ba9625.html "undefined") in May by the _Post-Dispatch_ that found that the town of 3,300, located northwest of St. Louis, handed out 2,255 nontraffic citations last year to residents for violations like failing to put curtains in their windows, overgrown trees, and front yard barbecuing. The violations amount to almost two per household, the _Post-Dispatch_ [reported](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/lawsuit-filed-against-pagedale-for-ticketing-high-grass-and-other/article%5F35fd1f5b-5a9b-5b21-97d3-dbaa927294d7.html "undefined"). Non-traffic violations make up roughly 40% of the city’s yearly citations and have grown 500% in the last five years. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4102070/missouri-town-sued-excessive-fines-pagedale/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4102070/missouri-town-sued-excessive-fines-pagedale/"},"headline":"Missouri Town Sued After Citing Residents for Saggy Pants, Mismatched Curtains","datePublished":"2015-11-05T22:54:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:23:47.371Z","description":"Violations amount to two per household","url":"https://time.com/4102070/missouri-town-sued-excessive-fines-pagedale/","keywords":["Laws","Crime","States","Missouri","fines"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt432e9668e90eb485/69886fc93c16395d3f45a920/saggy-pants.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Josh Sanburn","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/josh-sanburn/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt432e9668e90eb485/69886fc93c16395d3f45a920/saggy-pants.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"200292221-003","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/laws/","name":"Laws"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4102070/missouri-town-sued-excessive-fines-pagedale/","name":"Missouri Town Sued After Citing Residents for Saggy Pants, Mismatched Curtains"}}]}] ```