Hundreds of Florida drivers have joined class-action lawsuits against a variety of local governments in recent weeks, protesting the use of red-light cameras, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
“The phone has been ringing consistently over the last two weeks,” said attorney Jason Weisser of Schuler, Halvorson and Weisser in West Palm Beach. The calls were in response to newspaper ads the firm ran to recruit clients. “They are violating people’s constitutional rights [in order] to make a buck.”
Suits have been filed recently against Aventura, Miami Gardens, Juno Beach and Orlando with more planned by Weisser.
Florida state law prohibits installing red-light cameras on state property. Cities are allowed to post the cameras as long as they do not use them to issue traffic citations, in compliance with an opinion issued in 2005 by the Florida attorney general.
The cities get around the attorney general’s ruling by citing the vehicle’s owner for code violations that do not count against the owner’s driving record, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel report.
Cities say the cameras deter drivers from running red lights and thus prevent crashes. The drivers joining the lawsuits say the operation violates their due process and equal protection rights.
The cameras photograph the license plate of the red-light runner’s vehicle and automatically mail a citation to the vehicle’s owner, not the driver. The fine is generally $125 for first offenders.
The fined owners and their attorneys complain that no police officer witnesses the offense in the case of a camera citation and that the owner can only appeal to a special magistrate rather than to the county court as in the case of an officer-issued ticket.
“It’s like having the officer who wrote you the ticket rule on your case,” attorney Brett Lusking, who filed the Aventura suit, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “It’s a flat violation of state law. I want the judge to declare these things are invalid.”
