Went to traffic court today

[ndcroy]

Glad it all turned out. In my County ( I have worked for the Sheriif's Office for 28 Years) the judge would have refered to this as a ticket bearing chcken feathers...if you get the drift. A lot of people do not come to court and just pay their tickets off. My advise to everyone is go on in and plead your case..its is your right to do so...dont give up your right. On the other side, we do have areas where folks avoid traffic signals by driving through a business. I understand that violation...but a city park...come on. Have a good one!

Fish ON

 

[Captain Ahab]

Unfortunately stuff like this happens all teh time - but there is no class action suit here, this woudl not form teh basis for such an action

Why not Capt?? A lot of tickets were written unlawfully here? Just like a speed zone that doesn't meet the warrants or a stop sign that doesn't meet the warrants (as set forth in the IDOT manual (Illinois Department of Transportation) for traffic volumes, road sized/width, number of residents spaced a certain distance apart, etc., this is a clear case of a police department arbitrarily enforcing an incorrect statute because they decided they wanted to (because the Park District complained) without justification. What is missing for a class action? All those illegal tickets written with no justification? I'm certainly no lawyer, but it seems to me that this situaion would apply to a class action? If it is not too lengthy, please elaborate. Just curious. Thanks.

To start with the it would not get past sovereign immunity standards. (Unless the State specifically allows for a civil action you cannot sue the state).

Additionally, although it would appear that all possible Plaintiffs suffered the same harm (bad traffic tickets) it is very unlikely that they did so as a result of the same action (course of conduct). By rule of Court class actions arise when all litigants suffered the same harm from the Defendant's same action. Here, the litigants all suffered different harm from a number of different incidents and woudl thus be entitled to different forms of relief.

While the individuals might bring suit they would not be able to do so a group all seeking the same relief.

 

[FishingCop]

Unfortunately stuff like this happens all teh time - but there is no class action suit here, this woudl not form teh basis for such an action

Why not Capt?? If it is not too lengthy, please elaborate. Just curious. Thanks.

To start with the it would not get past sovereign immunity standards. (Unless the State specifically allows for a civil action you cannot sue the state).

Additionally, although it would appear that all possible Plaintiffs suffered the same harm (bad traffic tickets) it is very unlikely that they did so as a result of the same action (course of conduct). By rule of Court class actions arise when all litigants suffered the same harm from the Defendant's same action. Here, the litigants all suffered different harm from a number of different incidents and woudl thus be entitled to different forms of relief.

While the individuals might bring suit they would not be able to do so a group all seeking the same relief.

Gotcha, I think. I just remember a case back about 28 yeaers ago where a speed zone was found to be unjustified because it didn't meet the warrants. A class action was filed and the City had to pay back the fine moneies to all the ticketed drivers - However, I will admit, that this was so long ago, I don't remember all the exact particulars. Thanks for the explanation.