ALL RED LIGHT TRAFFIC CAMERA CASE FILES

By: Jason D. Weisser

The last few months has seen some dramatic changes in the law regarding the use of red light traffic cameras for the issuance of citations. As many of you are aware, both the House of Representatives and the Florida Senate received numerous proposals during their sessions regarding the legalization of red light traffic cameras for the issuance of citations within the State of Florida.

After much political wrangling, both the House and the Senate were able to agree on House Bill 325 which was then signed into law by Governor Charlie Crist. This new law makes it legal for municipalities to issue actual traffic citations, as opposed to municipal ordinance violations, for individuals running red lights that are caught on camera.

The most notable portions of this new law are that an individual will not be receiving a citation from making a right hand turn on a red if the driver makes the turn in a "careful and prudent manner at the intersection where right hand turns are permissible."

In fact, the City of West Palm Beach has recently started refunding individuals who received citations for this very reason.

Additionally, the new law establishes that within thirty (30) days after the violation, notice of the violation must be sent to the registered owner of the vehicle. What is also significant, is that the owner of the vehicle can have the responsibility for paying the citation transferred to the driver of the vehicle, if the owner submits an Affidavit which includes the name, address, date of birth, and if known, the driver's license number of the person who was driving the car at the time of the infraction. In such situations, the State may issue a traffic citation to the driver instead of the owner.

You are probably wondering what affect this law will have on the lawsuits that we have filed on your behalf prior to this time frame. The answer is none at all. We are proceeding forward with our lawsuits just as we have before. If anything, we believe this strengthens our position as the Senate and the House were both requested to provide a retro-activity provision in the law, which would have allowed the municipalities who have issued citations prior to the enactment of this law to have them declared legal. Thankfully, after some lobbying on our behalf, the legislature refused to include this provision.

Thus, prior to July 1 of this year, it was still not legal, in our eyes, for these municipalities to issue these violations. We are currently in the process of submitting our responses to the Defendant's Motions to Dismiss our class action lawsuits. These matters will be set for hearing over the next 90 days throughout the state. In all likelihood, the judge will then require us to slightly amend our complaints, and then we will be able to proceed forward with our litigations.

In conclusion, we are still very optimistic about our likelihood of success on these cases and plan to continue proceeding forward on your behalf.

CLASS ACTION TRAFFIC CAMERA LITIGATION UPDATE 11/12/09

By: Jason D. Weisser

As many of you are aware, we have recently filed the lawsuits seeking class action status against the different municipalities for the red light and speed van citations that you have received.

In total, we have filed sixteen lawsuits throughout the State of Florida. The lawsuits are in relatively similar postures. At this point, the Defendants on these cases have to respond to our Complaints. Their typical responses included either a Motion to Dismiss the Complaints or they will answer the Complaints.

All of the lawsuits are scheduled to receive a response from the defense within the next month. We will then respond to their Motions to Dismiss and set those Motions for hearing. If we defeat the Motions, we will then proceed to the discovery phase, during which we will be seeking production of documents and answers to interrogatories from the Defendants. In turn, they will request information from us or the class representative for each jurisdiction.

As we have indicated to you previously, this is going to be a long process which we anticipate will most likely be addressed in Motions for Summary Judgment at some point down the road. These Motions can only be filed after all discovery has been completed, thus explaining the time frames.

We look forward to engaging in this discovery process and seeing the justification for the actions of these different municipalities and corporations.