Lawsuit seeks more than $5 million in damages from camera operators
A class action lawsuit has been on behalf of Florida drivers who paid a fine after receiving a red light camera ticket.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in federal district court in Miami and seeks in excess of $5 million in damages from American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the Arizona company that manages the red light camera programs for most Florida cities that use them.
The lawsuit asks the court to order ATS to reimburse every Florida driver who’s paid a red light camera fine, dating back to July 2010.
According to the lawsuit, there have been more than 1.1 million violations and citations issued across the state.
The suit cites the recent District Court of Appeals ruling which found the way the tickets are issued is unconstitutional. Court documents show ATS pre-screens all the violations videos the cameras capture and then selects which ones to send to police for confirmation. The judges said a private company can’t make the initial determination of who should be cited. Since the process has been ruled unconstitutional, the lawsuit claims the tickets should not have been issued.
In response to the class action lawsuit, a spokesman for the company defended the process. “ATS does not have the authority to decide whether or not a violation is issued. That decision is entirely in the hands of the customer”, said Charles Territo, spokesman for American Traffic Solutions. The judge still must certify the proposal to establish the class of plaintiffs for the case. If you’d like to learn more about how you can be included in the lawsuit, read below: