Chicago Can’t Re-Adjudicate Traffic Camera Tickets, Class Action Says

Chicago drivers say the city’s attempt to re-adjudicate traffic camera tickets already declared void violates Illinois state law and the U.S. constitution.

Plaintiffs Delyn McKenzie-Lopez and Erica Lieschke filed a class action lawsuit alleging that with a new ordinance, Chicago is attempting an unconstitutional end-run around a judge’s February 2016 order voiding a slew of traffic camera tickets.

In that separate case, Cook County Judge Kathleen G. Kennedy determined that the city failed to provide the alleged offenders with a mandatory second notice before making an administrative determination of liability.

Chicago then passed a new ordinance, the Automated Enforcement Violation Review and Refund Ordinance of 2016, which went into effect in September of this year.

It purports to authorize new administrative adjudications of alleged speeding and red light violations caught on camera between March 2010 and May 2015.

The city argues this ordinance gives the alleged offenders a second chance to contest their voided traffic camera tickets.

McKenzie-Lopez and Lieschke disagree. They say the new ordinance is an unlawful attempt by the city to reopen determinations of liability that have already been judicially resolved in the drivers’ favor. Their attorney estimates the city stands to lose about $500 million in revenue connected to 1.5 million traffic camera tickets.

In this traffic camera tickets class action lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue the new ordinance violates limits imposed by the Illinois Vehicle Code. They say the Code expressly limits a municipality’s home rule authority over traffic camera ticket adjudications and provides for only one single proceeding to determine liability in each case.

“[T]he Automated Enforcement Ordinance is at odds with virtually every procedural requirement of the Illinois Vehicle Code  and completely undermines its purpose to ensure the ‘fair and efficient’ adjudication of speed and red light camera violations,” the plaintiffs say.

This traffic camera ticket class action lawsuit is just one case in a rat’s nest of civil and criminal litigation spawned over the city’s traffic camera tickets system.

A federal prosecution over bribery charges has resulted in a conviction and a 10-year jail sentence for one former city transportation official, as well as a guilty plea from the corporate officer of Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., the company hired to install the camera system.

Redflex is also facing a civil suit by the city, which is trying to get back $125 million it says the company never should have gotten out of the deal.

McKenzie-Lopez and Lieschke’s proposed plaintiff Class would encompass all persons to whom a determination of liability was mailed between Mar. 23, 2010 and May 14, 2015, who did not request or receive a hearing on that violation or pay the associated fine on or before the date of the determination, and for whom the liability has not been released, set aside, or extinguished.

Lieschke proposes to represent a second Class consisting of persons in a similar situation but whose determinations of liability were mailed before Mar. 23, 2010.

The plaintiffs are asking for a declaration voiding any fines or penalties assessed by the city under the Automated Enforcement Ordinance and an order barring the city from enforcing the ordinance. They also seek a refund of all money collected pursuant to the ordinance, with pre- and post-judgment interest, plus court costs and attorneys’ fees.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Jacie C. Zolna, Myron M. Cherry and Benjamin Swetland of Myron M. Cherry & Associates LLC and Antonio M. Romanucci and Rebecca Neubauer of Romanucci & Blandin LLC.

The Chicago Traffic Camera Tickets Class Action Lawsuit is Delyn McKenzie, et al. v. City of Chicago, Case No. 2016CH14304, in the Circuit Court for Cook County, Illinois.

UPDATE: On July 20, 2017, Chicago agreed to issue a total of $38.75 million in benefits to more than 1.2 million drivers who were assessed fines on tickets issued using traffic cameras.

UPDATE 2: October 2017, the Chicago red light camera class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.