An Illinois Appellate Court recently dismissed a class
action lawsuit challenging automated red-light tickets given at an intersection in a municipality. Tock
v. Village of Stone Park
Under the Illinois Vehicle Code, municipalities can write automated
tickets for drivers who stop after road markings and enter an intersection
through the use of red-light traffic cameras. The law provides recipients of these
automated tickets with an opportunity to challenge xthe tickets. In this case, three drivers received automated
tickets from the village’s red-light camera at the same intersection for
stopping after road markings. One driver appealed the ticket at an in-person
hearing and got it dismissed. Another challenged the ticket at an in-person
hearing and lost. The third driver had an opportunity to appeal their ticket at the
circuit court but did not. All
three drivers filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of themselves and hundreds
of other drivers who received automated tickets at that intersection arguing
the camera angle was improper and they were systemically and unfairly ticketed
as a result. The circuit court dismissed the lawsuit, and the drivers appealed.
The Appellate Court also upheld the dismissal of the lawsuit for
several reasons. First, because the first driver had the ticket dismissed, there was no injury to sue over. Second, relying on Pinkston
v. Chicago (that we recently reported on) the court reiterated parties must
exhaust their administrative remedies to file lawsuits over administrative
actions such as parking and red-light tickets. Since the second driver had a appeal
denied did not excuse a failure to appeal their ticket at the circuit
court, and the third driver did not appeal the ticket at all.
Post Authored by Daniel Lev, Ancel Glink