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Chicago cellphone tickets class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: A judge in Illinois’ Cook County has certified a class action lawsuit filed against the city of Chicago.
- Why: Chicago is accused of illegally collecting millions of dollars in fines given to drivers cited for using their cell phone while driving during the years 2014 and 2015.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court.
A Cook County judge last week certified a class action lawsuit accusing the city of Chicago of illegally collecting millions of dollars in fines from drivers given a ticket for using their cellphone while driving.
Jacie Zolna, one of the attorneys involved in the class action lawsuit, said the city has simply been using a law prohibiting the use of a handheld cellphone as a way to turn a profit, FOX 32 Chicago reports.
Zolna reportedly argues police officers in Chicago wrote around 90,000 tickets for using a handheld cellphone while driving between the years 2014 and 2015.
Chicago police officers, instead of sending the tickets to the county circuit court for prosecution, as legally required, allegedly funneled the tickets to their own department of administrative hearings, according to Zolna, FOX 32 Chicago reports.
Zolna reportedly argues the alleged conduct made it more difficult for drivers who were issued tickets to fight the citations, and allowed the city to keep tens of millions of dollars in fines for themselves, rather than handing it over to the state.
“They knew it was wrong. They knew they didn’t get to take the money,” said attorney Ben Swetland, FOX 32 Chicago reports. “But they kept taking it anyway. For years, to the tune of millions of dollars from its own citizens.”
Chicago police officers instructed to stop writing handsfree cellphone violations as municipal tickets in 2015, class action says
The attorney’s reportedly allege that a 2015 internal memo instructed Chicago police officers to stop writing hands-free cell phone violations as a municipal ticket, but that the city allegedly continued collecting fines on already-written tickets.
Further, once the alleged misconduct was caught, police officers simply stopped writing the hands-free cell phone tickets, allegedly proving the reason the tickets were being given was never for public safety to begin with, the class action alleges, FOX 32 Chicago reports.
Individuals who were given a hands-free cell phone ticket in 2014 or 2015 should reportedly expect to receive a letter related to the class action lawsuit, according to the lawyers working the complaint.
In September 2021, a class action lawsuit accusing the Chicago Police Department of violating the constitutional rights of Black and Latino residents through its stop-and-frisk practice was certified by a federal judge.
Did you receive a handheld cellphone ticket while driving in Chicago in 2014 or 2015? Let us know in the comments!
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