One lawyer in the Lone Star State has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars thus far in a fight against a $75 ticket from 2012, which he claims is a bogus misapplication of the law. Russell Bowman, a lawyer charged with running a red light in the city of Richardson, Texas in his Hyundai, has taken his fight against the red-light camera that snapped a picture of his license plate all the way to the Texas Supreme Court.
Much ado about $75 ticket
Many drivers on the road would balk at the proposition of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars during a lengthy legal dispute over a fine no greater than $75, but to attorney Russel Bowman, it’s a question of right and wrong.
Almost six years after a traffic camera originally snapped a picture of his Hyundai illegally zooming through an intersection while the light was still red, the lawyer believes he can win in a legal suit against the city of Richardson’s red-light camera program, which has drawn criticism in the past for fining drivers without due cause.
According to the Dallas News, red-light cameras have proven to be tremendously lucrative to local state officials as a revenue source; data provided to the newspaper by the Texas Comptroller’s Officer shows that more than $640 million in fines has been reaped by the ever-watchful cameras since 2007. The city of Richardson alone netted more than $7 million in revenue from the camera program, with half of all money from ticket revenue flowing into state coffers.
Local legislators have attempted to eliminate the cameras in the past; one state senator promised a bill to ban the red-light cameras, though its never come to fruition. Bowman’s move to take his case to the Supreme Court could be what finally resolves the issue once and for all.
Studies done
Cities that rely on red-light cameras were supposed to approve a study from Texas title lenders detailing and justifying their implementation, but Bowman and his legal allies posit that most Texas cities have failed to do so.
This is a serious challenge and well over $530 million in fines collected by state authorities over the last decade could be returned to those that were charged if legal opponents of red-light cameras get their way..
As for Russell Bowman’s driving record? Whether he’ll get reimbursed will be decided by the State Supreme Court, but the lawyer claims it wasn’t even him driving at the time, but rather, his wife.
