Saying that courts are intended to “dispense justice, not profits,” attorneys for four people whose traffic citations were adjudicated in DeKalb County Recorders Court are suing the county, claiming that the now-defunct court did not have the legal authority to handle cases involving state laws.

The plaintiffs, who hope to represent a class of tens of thousands whose cases were handled by the recorders court, also sued two private probation firms that oversaw probated sentences by the court.