Legal News

Court ruling may spark a refund windfall for ticketed CA drivers

By Richard Binder

The California Superior Court's Appellate Division canceled a photo ticket issued to southern California resident Thomas Fischetti because the city of Santa Ana failed to provide a 30-day warning period before issuing tickets from cameras posted at red lights throughout the city, according to published reports.

The court ruling backs a 2005 ruling also in favor of Fischetti. At that time the California Supreme Court upheld a previous appellate court ruling that the driver was not guilty for a ticket issued by the city of Costa Mesa for the same offense. Fischetti then pursued the same issue, again winning in court earlier this month.

The California League of Cities had tried to overturn the 2005 ruling in favor of Fischetti, explaining that if allowed to stand, all 66 cities that use the red light cameras had failed to provide the proper warning period required by law. Now that this decision in favor of Fischetti is published, unlike the earlier one, every ticketed driver for this offense in any of the 66 cities could be entitled to a full refund.

See here and here for details.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on February 10, 2009 (boomark / email).