Edward Guedes (Chair of the Firm’s Appellate Practice group and lead appellate attorney for the City of Aventura in this case), Matthew Mandel, Samuel Zeskind, and Adam Schwartzbaum all obtained a significant appellate victory in the Third District Court of Appeal, which held that the City of Aventura’s Red Light Camera program is legal.
The Third District Court of Appeal just this morning issued a major opinion regarding the red light camera controversy that has had impact throughout the state and has resulted in a premature federal court class action for return of fines by red light camera violators. The opinion, just rendered this morning, upholds the legality and authority of the City of Aventura’s red light camera program.
This new opinion points out that the Fourth District Court of Appeal’s decision in City of Hollywood v. Arem, decided in October 2014, was based on an incomplete record that did not fully disclose to that court how red light camera programs actually operate. The Arem decision, which until today stood unchallenged by another appellate court, has been invoked repeatedly throughout the state to invalidate legitimate citations issued to individuals who violated red light signals and in some instances has led local governments to dismantle their red light camera programs.
Today’s well thought out and detailed opinions – 37 pages, consisting of a major and specially concurring opinion (attached here) – give the reasoning behind this ruling. Mr. Guedes was the lead appellate attorney for the City of Aventura in this case.
Mr. Guedes has urged since Arem was issued that the Fourth District ruling came due to limited information, and today’s ruling confirms that. With a fuller picture, the decision to maintain the rights of local governments to operate red light camera programs is fully supported.
