Class Action: Drivers Charged ‘Excessive Penalties’ for Bay Area Toll Bridge Violations Without Notice

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Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA); Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District; and Xerox State and Local Solutions, Inc. are on the receiving end of a proposed class action lawsuit recently removed from state to federal court in California. The case was initially filed in July 2018 by a U.S. Army sergeant who claims the defendants charge excessive penalties for toll payment violations on the San Francisco Bay Area’s seven toll bridges.

Per the plaintiff, the lawsuit says the man drove across the Benicia-Martinez Bridge around May 2, 2014, while stationed on military duty, though the plaintiff claims he has no memory of this incident. More than three years later, the complaint continues, the plaintiff reportedly received a Notice of Assignment in the mail at his Texas home address stating he owed $75 in tolls and penalties for the May 2014 bridge crossing. According to the complaint, the plaintiff was never notified of the violation and was unaware of the charges until his purported debt was sent to collections.

The lawsuit argues that the defendants—i.e. the entities responsible for operating and managing toll collection on the Bay Area bridges—purposely fail to notify vehicle drivers that they have committed toll violations, causing them to incur “thousands of dollars in civil penalties” while waiving their rights to dispute the charges. From the complaint:

“If a [proposed class member] does not know of the alleged violation and cannot locate the BATA website in five days from the alleged violation, and pay the toll in full, Defendants: (a) assess excessive penalties disproportionate to the amount of the original toll; (b) obtain ex parte judgments against the commuter for the total toll plus unconscionable and/or excessive penalties; and/or (c) place liens on vehicle registration renewals with the DMV if those excessive penalties are not paid within 30 days.”

Penalties many times exceed 10 times the amount of the original toll charge—or 1,000 percent—according to the case, and commuters are allegedly given no reasonable method to dispute the charges before judgments are entered against them. The plaintiff claims these practices violate drivers’ constitutional right to a fair hearing.

The lawsuit goes on to allege that the defendants unlawfully share drivers’ personally identifiable information (PII), such as travel pattern data, with third parties, including law enforcement, banks, car rental agencies, out-of-state collection agencies, and credit bureaus. The case argues that drivers have “a reasonable expectation of privacy” that their PII will not be relinquished to third parties “for the purposes of obtaining DMV registration liens and ex parte judgments against them” while they were “merely [driving] down the road.”