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Lawsuit alleges DeKalb County court mishandled traffic cases

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A federal lawsuit filed Thursday demands each driver illegally convicted and fined get their money and have their records cleared. Those cases came through the DeKalb County Recorders Court.

Christina Williams says that when she first went to DeKalb County Recorders Court back in 2010, she paid her tickets for driving without insurance and registration.

Williams was baffled when she got another notice to appear in 2014.

"I said, 'This was already taken care of, I assure you.' I said, 'Please,'" Williams said.

Williams says a judge who wouldn't listen to her put her on probation for one year and suspended her driver's license.

"This was wrong. It was a violation of her constitutional rights, and give her back the money that you had no right to get," Attorney Marlan Wilbanks said.

Williams is one of four drivers suing DeKalb County and private probation companies for taking their money.

The lawsuit alleges hundreds of thousands of drivers were illegally fined, put on probation or even jailed. It also says this court had no business hearing state traffic cases.

"This court should have been hearing leaf-burning complaints, dog-leash issues ... things that are county ordinances," Willbanks said.

The attorneys who filed the lawsuit want Dekalb County to return more than $100 million to the affected drivers and for the state to clear the driving records of the alleged victims.

Williams says she's still amazed how far this got and wonders why nobody stopped this court.

Attorneys say if you got a ticket in Dekalb County and came to court at the Recorders Court, you may qualify for this case.

DeKalb County has yet to comment on this.