Willoughby Court Pauses Mandatory Fee to Appeal Traffic Camera Tickets

Willoughby Municipal Court will soon be looking into their mandatory payment for drivers to appeal traffic camera tickets, a part of a larger campaign to knock legal fees some say had violated state law and the U.S. Constitution.

For years, Willoughby’s court charged drivers accused of a traffic camera violation $25 to allow their appeal to be processed through the system. This month, a public interest law firm in Washington, D.C., held talks with the court in hopes to see this fee is eliminated.

“Basically, our argument was that they were depriving people of their money and their property,” Bobbi Taylor, an attorney with Institute for Justice, told Scene. “And doing so without due process or an actual conviction.”

Taylor sent a letter to the court last month, then talked to an attorney representing them about next steps, she said. The court has recently paused the fee but now lumps that $25 filing cost on the losing side of the case.

“The difference is, it’s not a price of admission to court,” Taylor said. “It’s more of, ‘You’ve been found guilty after having an opportunity to be heard. Now we’re assessing this fee against you.’”

Willoughby, at least according to IJ’s advocacy work, is one of a few muni courts out of the 112 around Ohio that has been accused of violating due process rights with paywalls.

In 2023, the Stow Municipal Court agreed to stop charging those accused of traffic violations a $100 fee, after using the money pooled from that paywall, IJ later found, in the city’s general budget.

Willoughby Court Clerk Chris Simon told Scene they the issue is under consideration as to what will happen in the future.

“Tthere’s nothing final yet,” he told Scene in a phone call. “It’s under review. It’s a possible conclusion, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

“The only position of the court is that it’s been brought to our attention,” Simon said. “And now we’re reviewing it.”

The bulk of IJ’s work, and the legal argument behind downing paywalls like in Peninsula and Stow, lie in Timbs v. Indiana, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the 5th, 8th and 14th amendments in the Constitution—those that ban excessive fines and guarantee fair hearings—trickle down to state, county and city courts.