Suffolk County Added a $30 Fee to Red-Light Camera Tickets From 2013 — and Kept Charging It Until 2023, Almost Three Years After a Court Declared It Void. The Settlement Pays Back $36 per Fee — Up to $45 Million, but Only to Drivers Who File by December 8, 2026. What Nobody Claims Stays With the County, and the Lawyers Ask $12.5 Million on Top.

If you paid a Suffolk County red-light camera ticket at any point since April 2013, you probably paid a $30 administrative fee with it — and you can now claim $36 back for each one. The fee is the whole case. According to the court-authorized notice, the plaintiff alleged that “as early as April 1, 2013 and continuing through January 25, 2023,” the county imposed excess liability: New York Vehicle and Traffic Law section 1111-b “limits liability to $50 per violation”, and the county added the $30 fee on top of the fine for each camera violation.

The notice says “The Court declared these Administrative Fees to be illegal and enjoined the County Defendants from imposing them.” The settlement agreement dates that ruling: on April 27, 2020 the court granted the plaintiff summary judgment and declared liability above $50 (or $75 with a late fee) “void as a matter of law”, enjoining the county from collecting it. The fee did not stop then: “On January 25, 2023, the County Defendants ceased imposing the excess $30 in liability.” The court certified the class on February 9, 2023. The county has not accepted that outcome in full: “The County Defendants are pursuing appellate review as to certain rulings by the Court,” and they “deny the merit of these allegations and deny any wrongdoing.” The settlement ends the fight over money for everyone who does not opt out. The lawsuit was filed in 2016 — the index number is 608155/2016 — by Robert McGrath, Jr., on behalf of himself and other drivers.

Why $36 for a $30 fee? The settlement agreement simply sets it: “Settlement Class Members will receive $36.00 for each Administrative Fee they paid for a red light camera violation.” Neither the agreement nor the notice explains how the extra $6 per fee was arrived at. Paid multiple fees? You get $36 for each of them.

The class is “all individuals and entities who, between April 1, 2013, and the present, paid a $30 Administrative Fee to the County Defendants for red-light camera program violations.” “Entities” matters: a business that paid the fee on a camera ticket for one of its vehicles is in the class too, not only private drivers.

Class members are identified from the county’s own records. Under the settlement agreement, the short-form notice is a double-sided postcard carrying “an identification number unique to each account” and a postage-paid, tear-off claim form “that indicates the number of fees paid according to the County Defendants’ records and the total Benefit amount available to each Class Member absent a pro rata reduction.” In other words, the county has already counted your fees; the postcard tells you the number.

You can file two ways, by December 8, 2026:

• Online at SuffolkRedLightSettlement.com, by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.
• By mail, postmarked by December 8, 2026, to McGrath v. Suffolk County, et al., c/o Kroll Settlement Administration LLC, P.O. Box 5324, New York, NY 10150-5324 — or tear off the postcard’s return form.

Every claimant attests, under penalty of perjury, that they paid the fee during the class period. If the postcard never reached you — you moved, or the ticket went to a company address — call Kroll at (833) 447-6790 before the deadline. The court’s schedule also provides for a reminder notice 60 days after the first mailing.

The $45 million is a ceiling, not a fund. Section 4.2 of the agreement: “Under no circumstances shall the County Defendants be required to pay more than the total sum of $45,000,000.00 to the Settlement Class Members”, and the county “shall not be required to make any additional payment … in the event that the value of the Benefits claimed is less than $45,000,000.00.” Section 4.3 calls the benefits “available on a ‘claims made’ basis”: the county pays valid claims only.

Our arithmetic from those two numbers: $45,000,000 ÷ $36 = 1,250,000 fees. Only if drivers claim more than 1.25 million fees does anyone’s $36 shrink, pro rata. Below that line every valid claim is paid in full, and every fee nobody claims is money the county keeps.

The same applies after payment. Checks must be cashed within 90 days; prepaid debit cards must be used within one year. Money from void checks and unused cards “will be returned by the Settlement Administrator to the County Defendants to be utilized to support driver safety initiatives” and, the agreement adds, will not count as unclaimed property that a state could hold for you. Payment can come by electronic transfer, prepaid debit card or check, as each claimant selects.

• November 9, 2026 — deadline to opt out (a written request postmarked by that day) or to object (filed with or mailed to the Clerk of the Court). Opting out keeps your own right to sue the county over the fee; it also means no $36.
• December 8, 2026 — claim deadline (online by 11:59 p.m. ET or postmarked).
• December 8, 2026, 10:00 a.m. ET — fairness hearing on final approval, fees and the class representative’s award. The notice warns the date and time may change without further notice.
• After final approval and any appeals — the county deposits the total of valid claims within 30 days of the settlement’s effective date, and Kroll pays within 14 days after that.

Class counsel will ask for up to $12,500,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs, plus $5,000 for the class representative. Those amounts are paid by the county “in addition to, and separately from, the up to $45,000,000” for claims, so they do not reduce your $36. One comparison is worth knowing, though, because it is the question the judge weighs on December 8: if drivers together claim fewer than about 347,000 fees ($12.5 million ÷ $36), the requested fee would be larger than everything paid to the drivers themselves. Weekly claim counts go to the lawyers under the agreement but are not published.

For how Kroll’s envelopes and letters look, see our Kroll settlement administration page; more settlements with open claim windows are on our open class action settlements list.