posted 2015 | City of Hollywood v. E.A. (appeal)
This decision created havoc with almost every city throughout the State of Florida. It was all over the media because it involved red light cameras and potentially millions of dollars. It also resulted in numerous class action lawsuits, including one filed by Mr. Forman as co-counsel. Here is what happened. A county court judge determined that ATS, the for profit corporation located in Arizona who operated the red light camera program, was unlawfully being used by the City of Hollywood in violation of state statute. The City of Hollywood appealed to the Fourth District Court of Appeal and hired a powerful law firm to handle the appeal. Mr. Forman was hired by the biggest ticket law firm in the state to handle the appeal. Cities all over the State paid close attention to this case because similar procedures were also being used.
After all the briefs were submitted to the appellate court, the court, in a 2 to 1 decision, reversed the decision of the trial court. The city thought that they had successfully won the appeal, which would save potentially millions of dollars. However, Mr. Forman was not ready to give up on the appeal and had an idea. He filed a motion for rehearing and tried to convince the same appellate court that they were wrong, certainly a difficult task. Several months later, despite opposition by the City, the Fourth District Court reversed itself and granted the motion for rehearing! The City appealed this to the Florida Supreme Court, but their request for review was denied. Numerous cities all over the state were forced to shut down their similar red light camera programs, some were shut down permanently! Mr. Forman’s persistence certainly paid off! Recently, Broward county alone dismissed over 24,000 red light camera citations.
