AUSTIN (KXAN) — Lawyers working to win refunds of red light camera fines for millions of Texas drivers stood before the state Supreme Court in Austin Friday. The attorneys want the state’s highest court to overturn the Texas Court of Appeals decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the city of Willis.
In the suit, the attorney alleged Willis—and dozens of other Texas cities—illegally issued hundreds of thousands of red light camera tickets because those cities failed to perform engineering studies required under Texas law.
A KXAN investigation in September 2017 found that of 50 cities that responded to open record requests, only three appeared to have performed the required engineering studies. The Texas Transportation Code requires cities to have performed those studies before installing a red light camera.
Our investigation found nine intersections in Austin with red light cameras. We filed an open records request with the city and found no signed, sealed engineering study for any of the city’s nine cameras. Between 2009 and July 2017, we found the city of Austin collected $5.6 million in fines.
A red light camera ticket fine is $75.
The lawyer who sued Willis, Russell J. Bowman of Irving, wants the state’s highest court to allow his lawsuit to be heard in district court on the merits. Bowman’s suit contends cities are illegally ticketing drivers because they did not perform the required engineering studies, which would give them the authority to fine drivers.
“With the statute using the words: the municipality ‘may not’ impose a penalty if the study is not done, it can’t be more clearer—the terms ‘may not’ are an expressed prohibition,” Bowman told the court Thursday, “You’ve got the statute prohibiting the very thing the city did.”
Bowman also contends in the suit that drivers should be refunded over this. Another point raised in the suit is that drivers have no way to fight red light camera tickets. Cities require drivers to appear before an administrative officer for a decision on guilt. That officer is an employee of the city and the officer’s decision in a case cannot be appealed.
Bowman argues Article V, Section 19 of the Texas Constitution gives jurisdiction over fines of $200 or less to a justice of the peace court, not a hearing officer. Bowman believes this is where people who want to fight a red light camera ticket should be allowed to have their day in court.
There is no date set yet for a decision from the state Supreme Court. If the court finds in Bowman’s favor and orders his lawsuit to be reinstated, Bowman told KXAN he plans to re-file it in district court.
