Woman goes solo in Honda lawsuit

TORRANCE, Calif. — A Los Angeles woman who expected her hybrid Honda Civic to be a high-mileage machine wants the automaker to pay for not delivering the 50 mpg it promised. But rather than being one of thousands in a class-action lawsuit, she took her case Tuesday to small claims court.

Experts said Heather Peters has a better chance of winning her case in a court with more relaxed standards and could get a payout many times higher than the few hundred dollars offered to class-action plaintiffs.

Peters said she’s been contacted by hundreds of owners who also want to take their chances with small-claims, where there are no attorneys’ fees and cases are decided quickly.

Neil Schmidt, a technical expert for Honda, called Peters’ $10,000 claim excessive for her 2006 Civic Hybrid. He said the federal government had required Honda to post the highest mileage the car could get, but said the mileage varies based on how the car is driven.

Peters said she would have never purchased the car if she had known that.

Experts say there are many upsides to Peters’ unusual move.

“I would not be surprised if she won,” said Richard Cupp Jr., who teaches product-liability law at Pepperdine University. “The judge will have a lot of discretion, and the evidentiary standards are relaxed in small-claims court.”

A victory for Peters could encourage others to take the same simplified route, he said.

“There’s an old saying among lawyers,” Cupp said. “If you want real justice, go to small-claims court.”