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A county Circuit Court judge has allowed attorneys to pursue a class-action lawsuit against the county and other local municipalities for allegedly violating state law by allowing the speed camera contractor to collect per-ticket fees.

Attorney William F. Askinazi plans to file the lawsuit on behalf of all people who have received tickets for speed camera violations in Montgomery County, Chevy Chase Village and Gaithersburg. The attorney alleges that the county's contract with ACS State and Local Solutions Inc., which allows the company to collect a $16.25 per ticket fee from the $40 citations, violates a 2006 state law. That law prohibits the contractor's fee from being based on the number of tickets issued.

"This is not about us being against speed cameras," said Askinazi, who served as assistant secretary for the state Department of Business and Economic Development from 2002 to 2005. "This case is taking a very specific attack. They have violated the state statute. When done right, we are in favor of speed cameras; this is done wrong."

The county currently operates about 30 fixed speed camera sites and an additional 90 mobile sites that are being used or are approved for future use.

Askinazi is pursuing the case for Timothy P. Leahy, an attorney who filed the original lawsuit against the county after receiving two speed camera citations last year.

County leaders have maintained that the per-ticket payment portion of the ACS contract is legal because the county acts as the operator, not the vendor.

Nevertheless, the county is in the process of renegotiating the vendor contract.

A new contract with ACS, negotiated by Chevy Chase Village, eliminates the per-ticket payments in exchange for the village paying a $148,000 flat, monthly fee for all four of the jurisdiction's cameras.