Should California drivers pay their red light tickets? Here's what experts say

Red light cameras are positioned at intersections across Southern California, and while some studies show they reduce the chance of accidents, there is confusion about whether red light tickets must be paid.

Advice is conflicting: Some say to pay the tickets, while others say to just ignore them. So, which is it?

Kris Kahrs says she was shocked when she was caught by a red-light camera in North Hollywood.

"We saw this flash after the light turned yellow and we were like, 'Uh oh, something's going on here,'" Kahrs said. Then came the $486 ticket in the mail. "That's serious money."

Kahrs paid a company called Ticket Snipers $179 to fight her ticket in court. Ticket Snipers founder Jorian Goes said there are over 250 photo-enforced intersections that are still active in California, and his company successfully challenges thousands of camera tickets every year.

He explained the myriad  problems with electronically issued violations, including no human witness and no first-person testimony.

"They have calibration issues with the sensors, the cameras, and then there is a non-uniformed declarant that looks over the footage that works for the camera company and the city that actually issues the violations," Goes said.

Jay Beeber with the National Motorists Association explained that in California, the state and the courts do not have a mechanism to force people to answer their tickets or to pay their tickets if they don't answer the ticket.

"The only thing they can do is, they can send it to a collection agency and a collection agency has no power over you," Beeber said. "They can't send it to a credit reporting agency, so it doesn't affect your credit."

CBS News California Investigates looked into the matter and tracked down a 2016 court case, which affirmed Beeber's statements.

In the 2016 case, the three major credit reporting agencies reached a voluntary settlement with 31 state attorneys general, agreeing to stop reporting debt from certain fines, including tickets.

So why are the tickets still issued? Beeber said it's because a lot of people simply pay them. Then there is the question of why the California red light camera violation ticket is so expensive, at $486. Another CBS News California Investigates piece found answers, as hidden fees are tacked onto a $100 citation.

California lawmakers have been quietly using traffic violations as a revenue generator for the state, or at least they've been trying. Some of those fees, like the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, have absolutely nothing to do with traffic violations.

While running red lights is dangerous and does deserve ticketing, Beeber explained that the vast majority of red-light camera tickets are for "Mickey Mouse violations," he said.

"They're a fraction of a second violations that nobody can even see with the naked eye, which the violator wasn't even aware that they actually committed the violation -- or they're slow-rolling right turns."

The Los Angeles Superior Court confirmed in an email that "if a litigant fails to appear in court or take any action by the 'appear by date' on the citation, the case proceeds to the collections vendor."

It is a good idea to check local court policies and to be aware that responding to a red-light citation will change one's status in the system.

"If you decide to answer, then you subject yourself to the jurisdiction of the court, and then you have to actually answer and actually have to go through the process," Beeber said.

For Kahrs, she chose to fight her red-light camera ticket and won -- it was dismissed.

This month, a new California law went into effect that could change the way red light camera tickets are issued.

It gives cities and counties the option of classifying these violations as civil rather than criminal offenses, which makes them easier to enforce since a court doesn't have to prove a crime was committed.

The owner of any car caught running a red light on camera would have to pay $100, and it would not add a point to the license, but a city or county would have to opt in.