Stone Park red light camera fine
1 - 18 of 18 Posts
It's a fine and not a ticket with points assigned against your license. You can try to talk to the Chief of Police of Stone Park, he has the authority to do so but, good luck with that. If you don't want to do that, pay it quickly or it will haunt you for the rest of your days.
Joined
·
4,361 Posts
I disagree. Don't pay the fine, and you will have zero consequences for the rest of your life. Out of city fines are virtually toothless. And let get me started on out of state fines. I have had two out of state tickets. Did not pay them. Received tickets in the mail for a couple years. Then they stop. Never heard from them again.
A city can put you on a tow list. A state can put you on a do not renew license list (but Illinois passed a law against this a few years ago). So you can get out of it by not paying it, if you don't visit Stone park regularly.
If you visit regularly, I'd pay it. Or they could potentially boot/tow you at some point.
Not so, I was red flagged by the City of chicago for a red light ticket in Wheeling from 30 years ago that I had to pay if I wanted to continue using Lyft and Uber. After I paid it I found out that my car could have been booted at anytime if it was found in the city limits of chicago in those 30 years. I am pretty sure they wait until you have 3 violations or more. I had 2 red light tickets (same as the op described) and one parked on the shoulder at O'Hare in a limo in '87. The tollway system waits until you have a few offenses before action as well.
Municipal fines do not have an expiration.
Joined
·
1,241 Posts
Submit an affidavit that you were not operating the vehicle at the time of the citation,, that is normally an option.
Joined
·
4,361 Posts
Yes, Chicago has an unusual situation. It has a deal with Uber/Lyft to report violations. I have not heard that deals like this are made with small municipalities.
Seems like the mayor has a red light camera dilemma
Joined
·
4,519 Posts
I guess that law wasn't in effect in 2020 when I had a wierdo headlight out fine (ticket, citation, whatever) from Chicago that I spent HOURS simply trying to call and find someone to mail my "repair" receipt to get it voided, as advised by the reporting officer. It was such a bureaucracy that I could not get through to anyone! I have a screen shot of waiting while a phone rang for over an hour. (I was advised, be patient, someone will get to you. I bet they love sending people to that phone with the ringer off.) It went to a collection agency. It was my year to renew my DL. I couldn't legally drive for weeks. "You can't fight city hall" is unfortunately a truism in this case.
PS the evil, wicked collection agency was the most reasonable part of the process! As well, the phenomenal Jesse White/Secretary of State's office. They got my DL reinstated in I think less than 2 weeks rather than the expected 6 weeks, not because of my personal intervention but just they are so damn efficient. My favorite Democrat. Sad to see him finish. Would have loved for him to streamline IDES which came in necessary later in 2020. What a shatshow.
2019 Reproduction 1860s era Stage Coach, Vintage Italian Leather Saddle, A-36 stainless horse shoes
Joined
·
11,235 Posts
Uber/lyft likely made deals that their drivers would not rack up unpaid/uncollectable tickets with various cities as part of the aggreement to work there, and or that the driver's with unpaid tickets would be deactivated.
Such a deal would cost uber nothing and the city would get old tickets paid.
Before you do anything stupid like not paying a ticket you need to 100% be sure of the consequences for not paying the ticket.
In Florida redlight tickets turn into point tickets if they go unpaid but don't if you pay them promptly.
If i were you i would PERSONALLY check what the consequences were for not paying the tickets.
Like looking it up yourself.
Florida for instance 100% of the time i'll tell you unless you are 100,000.00% sure that you can beat the ticket without a lawyer not to try fighting the ticket and just pay it. Not paying it isn't an option here, as you'll lose your license over them.
I'm not saying they are never worth fighting here but around here they are designed as a revenue generator. Fighting them isn't worth the time unless you KNOW you can win. A lawyer will cost more to fight the ticket with no garuntee of success, quickly paying them
I had one where a car passed around me and did a left turn on red while I remained stationary at a light. And I got the ticket for it. I was able to contest it before officially fighting the ticket and I won. Specfically I successfully argued that the ticket was in error because I wasn't driving the car when the ticket was issued. Which is an option, you then have to narc out the person who WAS driving the vehicle. Or if the car has been stolen that day write in "John Doe the car theif"
Well who was driving? The vehicle was stationary when the ticket was issued. I somehow tricked the system into reviewing the ticket without going to court over it. Specifically the system kicked the ticket back to the officer who signed off on the ticket so he could write a new ticket to someone by the name of "The dude in the red car" who lived at the same address I did. A few days later (Because I did it electronically) the ticket was deleted from the system, Likely to be issued to the guy who went around me.
So it's not like red light tickets are unbeatable, I just highly doubt it's worth fighting them over.
Such a deal would cost uber nothing and the city would get old tickets paid.
Before you do anything stupid like not paying a ticket you need to 100% be sure of the consequences for not paying the ticket.
In Florida redlight tickets turn into point tickets if they go unpaid but don't if you pay them promptly.
If i were you i would PERSONALLY check what the consequences were for not paying the tickets.
Like looking it up yourself.
Florida for instance 100% of the time i'll tell you unless you are 100,000.00% sure that you can beat the ticket without a lawyer not to try fighting the ticket and just pay it. Not paying it isn't an option here, as you'll lose your license over them.
I'm not saying they are never worth fighting here but around here they are designed as a revenue generator. Fighting them isn't worth the time unless you KNOW you can win. A lawyer will cost more to fight the ticket with no garuntee of success, quickly paying them
I had one where a car passed around me and did a left turn on red while I remained stationary at a light. And I got the ticket for it. I was able to contest it before officially fighting the ticket and I won. Specfically I successfully argued that the ticket was in error because I wasn't driving the car when the ticket was issued. Which is an option, you then have to narc out the person who WAS driving the vehicle. Or if the car has been stolen that day write in "John Doe the car theif"
Well who was driving? The vehicle was stationary when the ticket was issued. I somehow tricked the system into reviewing the ticket without going to court over it. Specifically the system kicked the ticket back to the officer who signed off on the ticket so he could write a new ticket to someone by the name of "The dude in the red car" who lived at the same address I did. A few days later (Because I did it electronically) the ticket was deleted from the system, Likely to be issued to the guy who went around me.
So it's not like red light tickets are unbeatable, I just highly doubt it's worth fighting them over.
Joined
·
4,361 Posts
In Illinois, not paying a camera issued ticket will not result in a lost license. They are considered administrative violations and not moving violations The License To Work Act Goes Into Effect Today! - Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts
They issue tickets to people even when the license plate is clearly not their plate. They will issue even when it's clearly not the car that they claim is associated with the plate which is clearly not the plate in the photo. Then they will refuse to correct it. Good luck with that. You can't fight city hall.
Joined
·
4,361 Posts
That info is out of date, at least for chicago They now have a person review every single ticket. And that is the easiest contest win ever. You submit contest with ur registration and ticket is dismissed with no effort. I would if agreed with you 5 years ago but their system is 300% better now. Now perfect but it’s come a long way.
Joined
·
366 Posts
But I DID NOT GO THROUGH!! Stopped a bit late that is all. 😭
I totally understand what you are saying. The same happened to me. I just shared my experience with 'the system'. If any part of your car is over the top of the line, you are subject to a fine. This includes gore lines (The painted lane on the shoulders). It's a municipal fine that never expires and you can have your vehicle impounded the next time you are pulled over in that city or potentially lose employment. All I meant by my post is don't let it fester because it doesn't go away, ever and shared my similiar experience. The original red light cameras wouldn't take your picture if you stopped completely for 3 seconds. The law requires you to stop before the line and not for 3 seconds.
Another example is not making a complete stop. If you are issued a ticket for a rolling stop, the judge will ask you if "forward motion ceased". If your car rocked, the tires stopped, the front end dipped and at that point the body of the car is moving backwards you are legal. Forward motion had stopped, even for an instant is all the law requires. It doesn't matter anyway tho, you can say that forward motion had indeed stopped but the judge will ask the police officer and he will say otherwise. Then the judge says she has to take the word of the officer. In that case you will be judged guilty and fined unless the officer has many complaints against him. I watched a case thrown out because that officer wrote more tickets than the rest of the force in Crystal Lake that month. The courts are open to the public to watch, it's your right as a citizen to do so as long as there is room. I suggest doing so, sit in the front row if you can and just listen and learn. If you have to go to the court house for anything and have a little extra time, do it.
Another example is "Failure to Signal" if you start changing lanes without turning your signal on before you start turning or turn it off before completing the lane change, you are subject to a fine. The definition of completed is lateral motion has ceased in the direction of the turn. In other words, if you turn your right turn signal on, start a lane change and your vehicle is in the other lane entirely but shutoff your blinker while your vehicle is still moving right you are subject to a fine. It's happened to me.
Knock on wood, I haven't had a ticket in a long, long time.
They are indeed revenue generator. I got a ticket in the mail from NYC in which it said I had a double parking violation in Feb, but I was in Chicago the entire month! So I suspect someone may duplicated my plate and just went rampant in nyc. I contested it through the system, provided that me and my car wasn’t even in NYC when the violation happened, and guess what? My contest was denied and I had to pay for it! So I googled the similar situation and found out I wasn’t the only one! There is a way you can win but I guess you have to go to NYC to contest, I am not bothering that and just went ahead paid the 115 fine. They want your money and they don’t care what happened!
Joined
·
4,361 Posts
You don't need to pay out of state ticket violations. There is literally nothing they can do. What are they going to do? Pay a lawyer $500/hr to sue you for $115? They will send it to collections. But collections is not going to sue you either. *Obviously I am talking about a ticket or two. If you get several, then the math changes. In Chicago, for instance, it takes 3 unpaid tickets over 1 year + to get put on the clamp/tow list. Other cities are probably similar.
If I haven't hurt anyone, then I really don't like to pay tickets.
2019 Reproduction 1860s era Stage Coach, Vintage Italian Leather Saddle, A-36 stainless horse shoes
Joined
·
11,235 Posts
I had a "REVEIWED" ticket come to me that showed someone passing around me at a redlight and turning left on red and triggering on my car because my license plate was centered where a car "should" be stopped before entering the intersection.
1 - 18 of 18 Posts
