WARREN — The Tennessee-based company working with Girard to operate a program that generates traffic tickets using radar and cameras argues a lawsuit naming it as a co-defendant should be dismissed because it is the city that has the authority to issue the citations, not the company, according to court documents.

Blue Line Solutions and Girard are being sued by numerous plaintiffs being represented by Cleveland attorney Marc Dann, Ohio’s former attorney general.

The suit comes after motorists traveling between Dec. 7, 2017, and Jan. 6 on Interstate 80 through Girard were ticketed because the speed limit, which was lowered to 55 mph during a period of construction, should have been raised back to 65 mph when the construction ended Dec. 7, 2017.

Dann argues the legal speed limit returned to 65 mph, but the city and Blue Line Solutions ticketed people as if the limit was 55 mph, leading to 7,000 erroneous tickets during that time period.

Blue Line Solutions owns the traffic cameras Girard police use to ticket drivers. In return for leasing the equipment, the company takes 40 percent of the money collected.

The company’s motion to dismiss, filed by Youngstown attorney Robert Yallech in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, claims it is the city of Girard that has the statutory power to issue the citations, not the company.

“BLS did not issue any of the citations in this case. That statutes and ordinances cited by plaintiffs make clear that only Girard had that authority. BLS collected none of the fines from the plaintiffs. They were paid by the plaintiffs to Girard,” the motion filed by Yallech states.

However, Dann argues, the company is part of a larger conspiracy to defraud consumers and should be held liable.

“There is no question that these folks were working together to issue the citations. The citations were mailed by Blue Line to (the plaintiffs). And the company is certainly profiting from this,” Dann said. “If both participants are in on the scheme, they are liable to the folks who paid these tickets and should be held liable in court.”

When a police officer uses one of Blue Line’s cameras, he or she points it at traffic and it snaps photos of any vehicle identified by radar as traveling over the programmed limit. The photos are reviewed by a police officer, and then sent to the company. The company handles printing and mailing the ticket notices for the city, while the local authority accepts the payments and holds hearings for people who want to contest the tickets.

The motion to dismiss also claims in the suit that Blue Line violated elements of the Consumer Sales Practices Act are not applicable because the citations are not consumer transactions.

“It is impossible that BLS violated the CSPA by committing an unfair or deceptive act or practice in connection with a consumer transaction because there was never a consumer transaction between BLS and plaintiffs,” the motion to dismiss states.

Attorneys for Girard also have asked for the suit to be dismissed. Attorneys for the city argued the ordinance it uses to police speeding states violating a “posted speed limit” and because ODOT left the 55 mph signs up even after the construction zone was actually gone, Girard was acting within the limits of its laws. The motion to dismiss also argues the plaintiffs could have contested the tickets in an administrative hearing, but didn’t.

The parties are waiting for a decision on the motions from Common Pleas Court Judge Andrew D. Logan.