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The Bay Area Toll Authority, Highway and Transportation District, the Golden Gage Bridge, and Xerox State and Local Solutions have been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging that the Golden Gate Bridge’s electronic tolling system implemented in March 2013 unfairly assesses fees to drivers, not giving them enough notice or time to pay for crossing the bridge before they are penalized with late fees.
Lead plaintiff, Michael Saliani, alleges in his class action lawsuit that the recently implemented tolling system that is now mandatory for all drivers crossing the land mark leads to fines of $76 resulting in a windfall for the bridge and its private contractor who manages the tolling system, Xerox.
Last spring, the Golden Gate Bridge removed the option for drivers to manually pay the $6 toll to cross and became an all-electronic tolling system, alleges Saliani in the Golden Gate toll class action lawsuit.
Under the electronic program, drivers can mount a transponder in their vehicle and enroll in the “FasTrak” program which deducts money from their account through the program every time the driver passes under a sensor in the bridge. Otherwise, drivers who do not enroll and use the FasTrak program must pay online through the “Pay-By-Plate” program either 30 days before crossing the bridge or within 48 hours of their crossing.
Under the Pay-By-Plate program, the driver’s license plate is recorded and assessed the toll. According to the complaints, 85 percent of the vehicles that cross the bridge are enrolled in the FasTrak program, while those who are not enrolled in the FasTrak or License Plate Account programs, and who do not make the onetime payment online under the Pay-By-Plate program, are assessed a toll evasion violation that they must pay within 30 days.
“(V)ehicle owners who fail to pay the $6 toll within 30 days after citation – regardless of whether the vehicle owner actually receives notice of the toll evasion violation – are assessed a $25 penalty,” Saliani alleges in the Golden Gate FasTrak class action lawsuit, and “[v]ehicle owners who fail to pay the toll and $25 penalty are assessed an additional $45 ‘delinquency’ penalty. As a result, vehicle owners may be required to pay $76, or over ten times the amount of the toll, for each Golden Gate Bridge crossing.”
The Bay Area Toll Authority and Golden Gate Bridge contracts with Xerox, a private company, to provide notices to vehicle owners, conducting initial reviews of toll evasion violations that are challenged by the owners, and also to impose and collect penalties, alleges Saliani in his class action lawsuit. Further, argues Saliani, Xerox and the Golden Gate Bridge “have implemented a policy for assessing toll evasion violations and imposing and collecting penalties in a manner that assures that vehicle owners cannot meaningfully contest violations and pay inflated and outrageous penalties.”
Saliani alleges that Xerox does not put enough effort into locating drivers toll evasion notices, including obtaining up-to-date and correct mailing addresses and, because drivers often do not receive notice of a toll violation, “Xerox receives a bounty on all toll fees and penalties that it collects.”
In his class action lawsuit, Saliani alleges that “[s]ince the Golden Gate Bridge converted to an all-electronic tolling system in March 2013, penalties assessed on toll evasion violations have become an important source or revenue for defendants,” further “defendants released data showing that for the first four months of operation of the all-electronic tolling system, they issued 290,489 toll evasion violations and collected nearly $3 million in penalties.”
The Golden Gate FasTrak class action lawsuit also alleges that the defendants’ actions in assessing tolls on the Golden Gate Bridge violate the California Due Process Clause and mandatory duty laws and amount to unfair business practices, and negligence.
Saliani seeks puitive damages as well as an injunction requiring the Golden Gate Bridge and Xerox to refund fees and penalties to drivers, reverse any DMV registration holds, and provide owners with a fair and impartial review of their toll evasion violations.
Lead plaintiff, Michael Saliani, is represented by Adam Gutride with Gutride Safier.
Case information for the Golden Gate FasTrak Class Action Lawsuit was not available at the time this article was published.
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48 thoughts onGolden Gate Bridge FasTrak Fees Rack Up Class Action Lawsuit
The same thing is happening to me. I received a toll evation on 12/27/2014 for $32 ($7+$25 penalty) when I crossed the bridge on 10/30/2014. I NEVER GOT THE BILL IN THE MAIL. Fastrak is a big SCAM, and I am so disgusted that these scums of the earth managed the toll system.
I received a toll evasion penalty notice dated 11/26/14 ($25) + the toll charge ($7). I went south bound on my motorcycle on 10/04/14. I NEVER GOT THE BILL ON THE MAIL, Even though I have got them before, that’s why I was confident I was to receive the toll bill on time and forgot about it.
I know they’re money thirsty all the time because currently they’re trying to charge even pedestrians and bicyclists.
Is there anyone (person or institution) with enough power to check on this Xerox guys and be sure they’re not just trying to squeeze G. G. bridge users wallets for their own profit?
I paid the toll for a single crossing. I got a confirmation # and everything was in order. Yet fastrak never charged my card. I then recieved a notice in my email telling me to pay for toll evasion.
To me this is obviously the deliberate and illegal manufacturing of citations. If I didn’t pay, they would not have an email address to contact me through. The DMV does not have my email address. they ask for my email address as part of the payment process.
I tried to pay a second time recently. The website said the system was down for a few days. When I tried to pay a few days later, I couldn’t because the 48 hour grace period had expired. I couldn’t call because the phone service is closed on weekends.
I paid for a single crossing, got a confirmation # fastback charged my card. Then I received a notice of toll evasion (owe $25.00 plus toll) Called, they said I have to pay it again, the system showed it wasn’t paid. WTF? The Credit card Co. is dealing with them, trying to get one of the payments back now. Told I will get a letter within a month to let me now how the claim is doing.
Hello to everyone. ..that’s just ridiculous. ..
We’re all together in this. ..
Please send some info how to bit the monster. .
How to sign the class action. ..thanks in advance
Rumi
I mis-spoke Fastrak was garnishing my savings account for $276.00 and my bank was charging $100.00 to pro form this service.
They, (Fastrak), were about to garnish my savings account for 220.00$, for a vehicle that I sold 2 years ago. I had to take the time to dig up old paper work,(Release of Liability, and Change of Ownership papers), that had been filed with the DMV, to prove this, in other words, I was guilty until proven otherwise. It is taking much time, and energy, on my part, to prove that this was not my vehicle. I am now making copies and sending all the necessary documentation. As of today 9-18-14 they have not reversed the fees. I am so darn angry at the unfairness of this private entity, Xerox. I just wanted this on record. Now back to the battle…
Same thing happened to me. Guilty until you waste your time to prove you are innocent.
I was moving a lot and had a debit card connected to my account. I paid my balance with that card and added it to FasTrak account. Fast forward 3 months after that, I got 30 violations and around $2500 on my DMV account! I sent them certified mail letter for reconsideration of registration hold and never got an answer. Is there anyone who can help with this? It’s impossible that there is no higher authority that you can file a complaint to?
Unbelievable, I knew I crossed the bridge but never got anything through mail, So I sent them an email with the date of crossing and asked for an invoice number since you cannot retrieve any payment due by license plate,
it has been weeks and nothing from them,
However today, I received a “NOTICE OF TOLL EVASION” for a total of $ 32.00
They need to be nailed, I am so Frustrated and Disillusioned.
Somebody, please post the link to the Class Action, so we can all tell our story,
My husband has a debit card linked to the pay by plate program. When his bank issued him a new card and canceled his old one for fraud prevention the bridge tolls were no longer being drawn from his account and being paid. Unbeknownst to my husband the fees went from 6 to 30 something to 70 something and then to over 600… How can they even do this? They never sent anything staying that the card was no longer valid.
I just received 4 notices of 76.00 each.
They had the wrong address and now the want to charge me for fines and late fees!! Help! How do I join this case!!
Ditto. The mailman delivered not one but two of my notices to my next door neighbor, who unfortunately is rarely home so wasnt able to give them to me in a timely manner. They would not reverse the fees and was stuck with a huge bill. I want in on this, too. This whole electronic thing was good for relieving traffic and padding their wallets, but bad for people in our situations.