Class Action Lawsuit: ‘Joliet Conducting An Illegal Scheme’

JOLIET, IL — Long-time Joliet Attorney Frank Andreano intends to move ahead with a class action lawsuit against City Hall, accusing Joliet officials of “an illegal scheme” to generate millions of dollars of extra revenue for itself by targeting commercial truckers passing through Joliet.

“Joliet put itself in the position of being the fox guarding the henhouse,” Andreano’s class action lawsuit against Joliet states. “Because the fines due under those tickets are hefty, Joliet uses this scheme to generate millions of dollars for itself.”

According to the civil lawsuit at the Will County Courthouse, Joliet is known as the Crossroads of Mid-America because of the intersection of Interstate 55 and Interstate 80 as well as major railways and a series of canals. Joliet is one of the most heavily trafficked area for commercial trucks in the entire United States.

Image via John Ferak/Patch

The main legal issue, according to Andreano, is that Joliet’s municipal ordinances for commercial truck moving violations and offenses reportable to the Illinois Secretary of State are instead being handled by Joliet City Hall as “administrative adjudications of tickets for violating Joliet’s over length or overweight truck ordinances” in violation of state law.

“Joliet’s administrative adjudication scheme is motivated by financial gain,” Andreano argues in his class action lawsuit.

In 2017, Joliet established its Joliet Police Department commercial truck enforcement to issue more tickets to truckers. “In the first 14 months after this new unit was created, Joliet issued tickets totaling over $2.2 million,” Andreano revealed. “Joliet retains all of the funds generated through its scheme. If these tickets were adjudicated in an Illinois court, Joliet would have to share the proceeds from the fines with other units of government.”

Are the Joliet police’s days of issuing tickets to commercial truck drivers on Millsdale Road, off Route 53, about to come to end? Images via Google Maps

Joliet Patch visited the city’s legal department Wednesday, leaving a message seeking comment from Joliet Corporation Counsel Sabrina Spano, but she did not call back.

A city employee told Patch the office is well aware of Andreano’s class action lawsuit involving the truck traffic enforcement.

“To bypass the distribution of fines paid for alleged violations of the ordinances to other units of government, Joliet established for itself an in-house administrative traffic court system that allowed the city of Joliet to keep traffic court monies for itself,” Andreano’s lawsuit stated . “In gaming terms, Joliet stacks the deck in its favor and then keep all of the winnings.”

Incidentally, Andreano, along with Chicago attorney Karl Leinberger of Markoff Leinberger LLC filed their lawsuit Nov. 29—just three days before the Illinois Court of Appeals for the Third District issued an important legal opinion in a totally separate case called Cammacho versus City of Joliet .

“Plaintiffs, Robert Cammacho Jr., James A. Jones, Bruce D. Oliver, David B. Speer, and Jorge Urbina, were cited for violating the defendant City of Joliet’s ordinance, which imposed weight limits for vehicles on designated roads. The citations were adjudicated through the City’s administrative process. The administrative hearing officer imposed fines against plaintiffs. The trial court affirmed the decision of an administrative officer. Plaintiffs appeal, contending that the City lacked jurisdiction to administratively adjudicate the violations in question. We reverse,” the Court of Appeals announced in its ruling.

The plaintiff’s lawyer in the Cammacho case against Joliet? Frank Andreano of Andreano Law, 58 North Chicago St. As for the losing side, Joliet was represented by assistant corporation counsel Todd Lenzie. You can read the entire Cammacho case eight-page Illinois Appeals Court opinion against Joliet here.

As it stands, Andreano is now representing four professional truck drivers, three from the US and one from Canada, who were busted by Joliet Police between 2019 and 2022 and all four men quickly paid their fines to the city of Joliet to avoid further escalating fines for failing to do so.

According to the class action lawsuit:

  • Iuri Culev resides in California and on Jan. 6, 2021, Joliet police “pulled Iuri’s truck over near the intersection of Millsdale Road and Holland drive in Joliet. The Iuri ticket stated that Iuri owed a $500 municipal fine … in violation of the Overlength Ordinance.” On March 9, 2021, Iuri paid $500 to Joliet for his allegedly over length vehicle.
  • Richard Bagley resides in Missouri and this past Sept. 17, Joliet police gave him a $250 ticket for driving an over length vehicle on a non-designated city street at North Joliet Street and West Jefferson Street in downtown Joliet. He paid the $250 ticket to Joliet on Oct. 6 and “Joliet administratively adjudicated the Richard ticket, which provided no method for adjudicating the Richard ticket in an Illinois court.”
  • Vasan Tharamalingham resides in Ontario, Canada and this past June 2, Joliet police gave him a $250 municipal fine for an overweight vehicle at Millsdale Road and Bridge Road in Joliet. On June 13, he paid $250 to Joliet.

Joliet attorney Frank Andreano is bringing forward a class action lawsuit on behalf of commercial truck drivers against the city of Joliet. John Ferak/Patch

  • Maciej Gasienica Sobczak resides in Illinois and on Nov. 4, 2019, he drove a Volvo semi-truck near Millsdale Road and Holland Drive where Joliet police gave him a $500 municipal ticket for driving on a non-designated city street. He paid the $500 fine to Joliet on Dec. 10, 2019.

“Even though Joliet illegally used its administrative adjudication system, plaintiffs had no choice but to pay the fines by their tickets,” Andreano’s lawsuit argued. “Joliet had no right to collect any of those monies … Joliet’s wrongful conduct inflicted damage upon plaintiffs Class Members by causing them to pay illegal fines ranging from $250 to over $1,000 per ticket.”

If the plaintiffs did not pay their fines in quick fashion, they faced higher fines for payments made after certain deadlines, collection agency proceedings, garnished wages, payment of Joliet’s fees and expenses incurred in collecting the fines, interest payments, negative reporting to credit bureaus and more, Andreano noted.

“Joliet’s ticket scheme strong-armed plaintiffs and class members into paying their fines by making threats to plaintiff’s pocketbooks,” his lawsuit noted. “Most commercial truck drivers do not receive significant compensation for being a truck driver. Joliet’s fines, in contrast, are significant amounts of money.”

Andreano believes that if his class action lawsuit gets a judge’s permission to proceed, the number of plaintiffs may climb into the thousands against the city of Joliet.

“Plaintiffs do not know the exact number of members of the Class because that is information under the exclusive control of the Defendant, but on information and belief, there (are) thousands of members in the Class,” the lawsuit states. “Joliet is the third-largest city in Illinois and contains hundreds of businesses that involve commercial trucking.”

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