Trial this week for lawsuit over alleged illegal traffic tickets

A lawsuit that could result in taxpayers repaying hundreds of millions of dollars for alleged illegal traffic tickets issued over a 15-year period is set to be heard by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday.

Maurice Housen, who is a software engineer, sued the State in 2021 for alleged breaches of his constitutional rights over a $5,000 ticket issued to him by the police on July 5 that year for a speeding violation. 

He is contending that the ticket was illegal because of legislative missteps in the process used to increase fines for traffic offences.

The trial will be heard by a panel of three judges, comprising Justices Dale Palmer, Carole Barnaby and Tara Carr. 

The matter is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. 

Housen contends that at the time the ticket was issue, fines or fixed penalties for traffic offences under the 1938 Road Traffic Act (RTA) were not increased by the legislature or the minister of transport as mandated in Section 116 of the RTA.

Instead, the fines were purportedly increased by then Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies in 2006 and 2007 as if they were taxes or duties under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, he asserted.

The minister of finance has no power or authority to increase fines or fix penalties under the Road Traffic Act, the software engineer argued through his attorneys Gavin Goffe, Jahmar Clarke and Matthew Royal from the law firm Myers, Fletcher and Gordon.

Housen's lawsuit seeks, among other things, an order for the Government to refund motorists, who, he contends, were illegally fined over the 15-year period ending in 2021 and a declaration that his constitutional rights to due process were breached by the imposition of the “illegal” penalties.

The Government used a marathon November 2021 meeting of the legislature to pass a bill correcting the misstep days after the Supreme Court granted Housen an injunction blocking the police from issuing tickets that impose fines above the 2006 rates.

Government has also conceded that it will have to return a substantial portion of traffic ticket fines that were collected over the 15-year period. 

“Such persons are only entitled to the difference between the amount prescribed in the then act and the amount stated on the ticket,” read a section of a court filing by attorneys for the government.

The case has morphed into a class action suit after the presiding judge granted permission for Housen to be the representative of motorists who were issued traffic tickets over the 15-year period and paid fines that exceeded the rates that were in place before the purported 2006 measures.

Legal experts say it would be “a big payday” for citizens who were ticketed between 2006 and 2021 should the court rule that the software engineer's constitutional rights were breached, coupled with the concession from the Government.