Heather Peters, disgruntled owner of hybrid Honda Civic, is taking the unusual step of suing the mega-company in small claims court instead of participating with thousands of others in a class action lawsuit, the more traditional way of getting justice from large corporations.
Peters is unhappy because she was told that her car would give her about 50 miles to the gallon and she gets nowhere near that figure. She says that if she had known that the hybrid would only get about 30 mpg she would not have bought the car.
There are several reasons Peter took her complaint to small claims: her chances of winning her claim are higher in small claims where “The judge will have a lot of discretion, and the evidentiary standards are relaxed in small-claims court,” according to Richard Cupp Jr., who is a teacher of product-liability law at Pepperdine University; she does not need to hire a lawyer- in some states lawyers are not even allowed; if she wins her payoff will be higher- in a class-action suit that Peters declined to join on behalf of hybrid Honda owners about the car’s fuel economy, a proposed settlement will give each of the thousands of participants and estimated $500 to $1,000 towards the purchase of a new Honda, and the trial lawyers will get about $8.5 million. Peters is suing Honda for $10,000, and if she wins, she gets the entire amount.
Peters has a website, DontSettleWithHonda.org, in which she encourages others to bring their complaints to small claims court. She said that over 500 people have contacted her, including a few Honda owners living in Australia, about how to proceed with their claims against Honda.