By John Dempsey, WLS-AM 890 News
(CHICAGO) In a victory for Chicago drivers who have received red-light camera tickets, a Cook County judge has denied the City of Chicago’s request to dismiss a lawsuit against the program.
Attorney Jacie Zolna represents three plaintiffs who received red-light tickets, but who never received a second notice of violation before the City determined they were liable for fines.
Zolna told “The Big John Howell Show” on WLS that the city failed in it’s obligation to issue those second notices, saying “It’s a procedural safeguard that was set up in the ordinance to give people adequate notice and adequate time to contest these tickets if they want to, and that safeguard was just ignored for years.”
Judge Kathleen Kennedy’s ruling last week declares the tickets issued to Zolna’s three clients void, and keeps alive their lawsuit seeking to have the city refund hundreds of millions of dollars to motorists ticketed since 2003.
Zolna says the next step is to ask the judge to give his suit class-action status, so everyone who got red-light tickets in that time span but failed to receive that second notice, could be eligible for refunds from the city. “If the case gets certified and I think that it will, that issue will be up next before the court. If it gets certified all the people who were affected by these practices will automatically be included in the class. At some point thereafter they should get some sort of notice in the mail, advising them of the lawsuit and their rights.”
Zolna claims the City denied due process to motorists who received the tickets, however Chicago Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey says the city believes the plaintiffs aren’t entitled to “any recovery, let alone any refunds.”
