Lawsuit calls for Baton Rouge to reimburse all traffic camera fines since 2007

BATON ROUGE - A lawsuit filed in court Friday is seeking to have Baton Rouge reimburse all traffic camera fines collected in the city over the past decade.

The lawsuit, filed by two southeast Louisiana lawyers, was filed on behalf of several people who have received fines via the city's traffic camera system since it was adopted in 2007.

The suit alleges that the Department of Public Works' enforcement of the traffic camera ordinance violates the Home Rule Charter of the City of Baton Rouge, which only allows the city police department to enforce the policy. Because of this, the lawyers say the department's enforcement of traffic camera fines is illegal.

The same pair of attorneys, Joseph R. McMahon, III and Anthony S. Maska, used the same legal argument to challenge traffic camera fines in New Orleans, which reportedly encounter a similar contradiction in the enforcement of its traffic camera ordinance.

A hearing will be held in the next 90 days for a judge to determine whether the case will be certified as a class-action lawsuit.