Minneapolis, Minnesota set up a red light camera program two years ago without permission from the state legislature. Because the state Supreme Court earlier this year ruled that photo ticketing violated state law (view ruling), the city will clear the license points off a drivers' records, if asked. But what the city will not do is return the illegally collected $142 fines that amount to around $2.8 million.

"The city is trying to buy these people off by dangling in front of them the offer to remove the citation," Marshall Tanick, a lawyer suing the city, told the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. "What the city is proposing is very meager and insufficient."

So far, only the 4200 citations that were pending or unpaid prior to the system's shutdown in March 2006 have been canceled. Motorists who wish to re-open a citation to obtain a refund and/or a cancellation of license points must file a motion with the court (view form, 21k PDF file). The lawsuit to force the city to refund the improperly collected fines is pending in district court.