New York drivers who paid red-light camera fines in Suffolk County could soon get some of their money back as part of a $45 million class-action settlement.<\/p>\n
The refunds stem from a yearslong legal battle over Suffolk County’s former red-light camera program, which ended three years ago. Before the program was discontinued, it generated roughly 300,000 traffic tickets.<\/p>\n
Drivers who paid fines under the program are expected to get $36 back for each ticket, according to Lake Grove attorney David Raimondo, who led the decade-long legal fight.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2016 by Raimondo’s client, PSEG lineman Robert McGrath, on behalf of drivers who challenged the county’s fees. New York courts ultimately ruled that the $30 administrative fee Suffolk County added to each red-light camera ticket was illegal. Suffolk County agreed to settle.<\/p>\n
Outside Suffolk traffic court Wednesday, several drivers welcomed the news.<\/p>\n
Asked how many red light tickets she’d gotten, Kimberly Jara said probably around 10. She says she never thought the program was fair, though she didn’t specify the nature of the unfairness. <\/p>\n
Other drivers said the refunds will provide some welcome financial relief. Every little bit helps, right?<\/p>\n
“Hey, I could use it. I\u2019m not working,” Catherine Karis said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Christopher Clayton, a lawyer for Suffolk County, said his client was pleased to reach a resolution that is both fair to members of the suing class and protects the interests of Suffolk taxpayers.<\/p>\n
County officials say everyone who received a qualifying red-light camera ticket will be contacted directly with refund claim instructions. Drivers will likely have to wait until next year before receiving the payments. <\/p>\n
Nonetheless, it’s something to look forward to. <\/p>\n
As one driver put it, “Free money is always good.”<\/p>\n
Raimondo said he is now working to bring a similar red-light camera refund program to Nassau County.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC New York. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC New York journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York drivers who paid red-light camera fines in Suffolk County could soon get some of their money…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,776,9,24,63,773,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-316195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-long-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-suffolk-county","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}