Thursday, March 11, 2010

Red Light Photo Tickets

Victor Puscas, a partner at Camic Johnson, Ltd. in Aurora, wrote an excellent article in the Kane County Bar Briefs regarding red light photo enforcement in Illinois. If you want to read the whole article, you'll have to join the KCBA, but I wanted to share a list that he gave of the defenses available to a red light photo enforcement violation. I think I had only thought of one or two of these before I read this article.

The defenses include: actually stopping; vehicle or plates stolen or sold; yielding to an emergency vehicle; participating in a funeral procession; or receiving two tickets for the same violation (i.e., from both a police officer on the scene and from the red light camera company).

Otherwise, there is a presumption that the camera equipment was working properly, the video establishes a prima facie violation, and the owner of the vehicle is responsible for the fine, even if he was not the driver. Is anyone aware of any other possible defenses?

2 comments:

Matthew Kooperman said...

Yeah, how about this one... "The guy behind me was driving erratically and wasn't stopping... I would have been the victim in a rear-end collision if I had stopped for the red light." I've always wondered whether that would fly in court... - Matt Kooperman -

Michael W. Huseman said...

Ahh.. The classic necessity defense. You would have laughed that out of court when you were with the state!!!!!!