Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/17/1737.asp

5/6/2007

Iowa: City Wants Refund from Camera Companies
Davenport, Iowa wants a $453,000 refund from traffic camera companies after a judge struck down photo ticketing as illegal.

Davenport, Iowa wants two photo enforcement companies to pay back the money they collected while operating an illegal ticketing program. In January, Scott County Judge Gary D. McKenrick struck down the city's speed cameras as illegal (view ruling) and in April certified the case as a class action lawsuit. This paved the way for a likely order to refund all of the 16,878 tickets Davenport has issued since 2004, costing the city more than $1 million.

The city council agreed to pay attorney Craig A. Levien at least $25,000 to appeal the ruling, but in anticipation of a loss the city is looking for a way to force a refund of the $453,000 kept by speed camera operators from the financially troubled Nestor Traffic Systems and the Australian vendor Redflex. Davenport's share of the profit was $558,659.

"I've made contact with vendors and they are going to assist us," Levien told the Quad-City Times. "The issue of payment has not yet been reached or addressed -- either payment of attorney fees or payment if refunds are ultimately ordered."

Source: Davenport hires Levien as counsel in traffic camera legal battle (Quad City Times (IA), 5/6/2007)

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