[logfromblammo]

You don't have to settle with the complainant, if you can convince the judge and/or jury.

Even if you don't actually want to go to court, you can usually still write an answer. Then you can still propose a settlement more favorable to you by mail, if the case isn't dropped outright. Why pay $100 if you could pay $20 plus postage stamps?

The automated enforcement would completely fall apart if the contractor had to spend money on skilled human labor for every citation. So every time you get a ticket from a robot, write an answer, and request source code for the robot's software as discovery. People pay because they don't want the hassle, but when you just send in a check for automated traffic enforcement tickets, you are paying the Dane-geld, and will never be rid of the Dane.

  "We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
    No matter how trifling the cost;
  For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
    And the nation that plays it is lost!"  --R. Kipling, "Dane-geld"

https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/dane_geld.htm...

(Not a lawyer. Not legal advice.)