Lawsuit Seeks Millions In Red-Light Camera Ticket Refunds

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 21, 2014 1:50PM

Image via NBC Chicago screen grab.

Chicago’s red-light camera network, like the speeding cameras and parking meter deal, is something most residents can unite to target their ire at hot The City That Works, doesn’t. Last week, a man filed a lawsuit seeking refunds from the former manager of the city’s red-light cameras.

Matthew Falkner, who received a red-light camera ticket at 76th Street and Stony Island Avenue in January 2013, filed the lawsuit last Thursday seeking class-action status against Redflex Traffic Solutions and Redflex Holdings, its Australian parent company. Faulkner, a banker who lives in Lincoln Park, alleges in the lawsuit Redflex received 20 to 25 percent of the revenue from every red-light camera ticket issued under the company’s contract with the city, generating over $100 million in “illgotten gains.” Falkner’s attorney, Thomas Cronin, told the Sun-Times, “that extra charge was uncalled for because it was negotiated by bribery.”

The bribery referenced in the lawsuit refers to the scandal involving Redflex and John Bills, the former Transportation Department official who was in charge of the red-light camera network and was charged in May of bribery. Bills is alleged to have accepted money, vacations, use of a condominium in Arizona and other gifts to steer red light camera business to Redflex.

Falkner’s lawsuit was filed a day after a Tribune investigation found thousands of drivers received tickets from red-light cameras, either as a result of faulty equipment or human intervention. Many cameras received sudden and unexplained spikes in the number of tickets issued, which experts told the Tribune should not happen in automated cameras.

A judge would have to approve the class-action status and Falkner seeks class-action status to cover anyone who paid their fines while Redflex controlled the camera network.