Suit seeks millions in ticket refunds

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This article was published 23/02/2023 (927 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Thousands of drivers caught speeding by photo radar cameras in Winnipeg in recent years may get a partial refund of paid fines — if a proposed multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit is successful.

In a statement of claim filed last year at the Court of King’s Bench, William Acheson of Winnipeg says the fine he paid after getting ticketed by photo radar should have been lower, due to the provincial legislation being applied in error from Nov. 20, 2017, to Nov. 12, 2021.

As well, the lawsuit alleges the province of Manitoba “actively, intentionally, and fraudulently concealed the fact of their collection of the overcharge from the public,” because, while the regulation was changed in November 2021, it never told any of the drivers ticketed they had been overcharged, nor did it return any of the overcharged fines.

Ben Haddad told the Free Press he is one of the affected drivers, and has been talking with the lawyers involved in the lawsuit. Haddad said he received three tickets in the mail during the time frame in question.

“Everyone, on average, was charged almost $80 extra for the fine,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like a lot, $80, it’s just enough to notice and be upset, but when you total it up, (the lawyers) think it cost at least $36 million from people.”

Naomi Kovak, of Vancouver-based law firm Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman LLP, said while ticketed drivers during that time period paid fines to the province based on $7.70 for every one km/h above the posted speed limit, the law at the time was written that they should have been fined that amount for every one km/h above 10 km/h over the limit.

“If you were going 11 km/h over the speed limit, you would have been charged for the (full) 11 km/h — instead of one km/h,” Kovak said, as an example.

As well, the B.C. lawyer said, drivers paid even more in total, because the 45 per cent of court costs and 25 per cent of surcharges added to fines in Manitoba are each based on the amount originally charged in the preset fine.

The lawsuit estimates each driver was overcharged a minimum of $77 per fine, plus surcharges.

Kovak said the lawsuit asks the province to issue refunds to drivers who paid the fines in that time frame.

According to the Winnipeg Police Service’s 2021 annual report on photo enforcement: “All fine revenue from photo enforcement tickets is collected by the government of Manitoba and a portion of the fine amount is remitted to the Winnipeg Police Service.”

After the WPS covers expenses, including program officers’ salaries and outside contractors, “as the photo enforcement program is part of the Winnipeg Police Service, any net surplus is incorporated into the overall budget to fund other policing activities.”

In 2021, that surplus was $7,975,131.

Chya Mogerman, another lawyer who is working on the case, said while a portion of the ticket revenue went to the City of Winnipeg, it is the province that must refund drivers.

“It was the province’s regulations,” Mogerman said. “If there are issues between the city and (photo radar providers), it is up to the province to resolve it.”

Bava Dhillon, a vice-president at Dhillon Automotive Group in Winnipeg, and another driver who received a photo radar speeding ticket, said in a statement the lawsuit “is not about the merits of photo radar or road safety.”

“This is about the government making a mistake that cost Manitoba drivers over $36 million in illegal fines,” Dhillon said. “The province needs to do the right thing: settle this class action and refund the money taken from Manitoba drivers.”

Kovak said the province’s justice department was served with the statement on Wednesday.

The lawsuit still has to be certified as a class action by a Manitoba judge.

No statement of defence has yet been filed.

“Our best estimate is (the damages are) $36 million,” Kovak said, adding that number will likely go up because tickets issued for vehicles speeding in a construction zone are set at $15.40 per one km/h.

The law firm said such tickets in Winnipeg, whether from mobile photo radar or from intersection cameras, are only issued to drivers going more than 10 km/h above the posted speed limit.

During the years involved in the lawsuit, the City of Winnipeg issued a total of 131,072 photo radar tickets in 2018, 119,472 in 2019, 101,984 in 2020, and 118,601 in 2021.

Kovak said the regulation in question was amended in November 2021, so any fine issued after that time is for every one km/h over the posted speed limit.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca