DISTRACTED-DRIVING LAWSUIT AGAINST CITY KICKS INTO HIGH GEAR

In August 2015, Chicago quietly shifted distracted driving tickets from administrative hearings to traffic court after being advised by its own attorneys that motorists caught talking on cellphones and texting behind the wheel were being denied due process.

Why, then, did City Hall continue to collect $3.2 million in fines from motorists whose tickets issued before then were “illegally” routed to administrative hearing officers and use those citations to suspend drivers licenses, deny permits and prohibit city employment for two more years?

Those questions were posed Wednesday by attorney Jacie Zolna after the latest legal maneuvering in a lawsuit that could trigger millions in refunds to motorists.

Zolna sued over the distracteddriving tickets in August 2017. State law required them to go to Traffic Court; that lawsuit accused the city of sending those tickets to administrative hearing officers instead, for one reason: to allow the city to keep the fines instead of sharing 55% of the revenue with the county and state.

Administrative hearings have long been viewed as stacking the deck against the accused; Zolna noted the normal “rules of evidence” don’t apply. Chicago police officers are not required to show up at administrative hearings, and there is no opportunity to crossexamine witnesses.

Ongoing discovery in the case has turned up several pieces of evidence Zolna views as smoking guns:

♦ An Aug. 6, 2015, internal memo to Chicago police officers directing them to stop issuing “administrative notices of violation” and start issuing traffic tickets to motorists caught texting and talking on cellphones while driving.

♦ A May 29, 2019, response from city attorney Natalie Frank acknowledging, “This change in policy was made on the advice of counsel.”

♦ A July 21, 2017, internal memo circulated by the city’s deputy director of accounts receivable directing city staffers to stop using distracted driving tickets improperly routed to city hearing officers to suspend drivers licenses, withhold city permits and deny city employment.

♦ Sworn statements from city attorneys revealing “collection efforts for unpaid distracted driver violations that were referred to the department of administrative hearings for adjudication ceased on or about July 21, 2017 . . . on advice of counsel.”

♦ Yet another sworn statement disclosing that nearly $3.2 million has been collected after Aug. 6, 2015, for distracted driving violations sent to the department of administrative hearings and resulting in a finding of liability.

“The city knew that what they were doing was wrong years before we filed this suit . . . . And it wasn’t until the eve of our lawsuit that they finally put the brakes on,” Zolna said Wednesday.

“If they were sending these violations to administrative adjudication, the tickets and fines were worthless.”

The new documents “add a wrinkle” by showing it was intentional, he said. “It’s crazy that the city does this kind of stuff.”

Law department spokesman Bill McCaffrey refused to comment on the lawsuit because it is pending. But he noted Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration “has already adopted reforms to reduce the burden of fines and fees for the hardest-hit residents” and “offer more pathways to compliance” that prevent residents from “losing driver licenses for non-driving violations.”