#hch

Class Counsel are correct in asserting that Peters’ demand for access to the fruits of discovery as actually a thinly disguised effort to use the discovered material to assist Peters in ‘begin[ning] a cottage industry of representing consumers or selling her $15 CD to them’.

Whoa, that’s a convoluted sentence, courtesy of the judge who mediated the settlement in the Honda Civic Hybrid class-action case. However, it more or less reflects the sentiments of the appeals court which just ruled Honda’s appeal of the $9,867 small-claims settlement granted to attorney and Civic owner Heather Peters. What does it mean? Click the jump for a helpful graphic.

Remember Heather Peters, the attorney who is suing Honda? Well, if a recent article by Automotive.com’s Jacob Brown is any guide, her lawsuit might be the equivalent of Honda’s IMA hybrid system: unpopular, mostly ignored, and unable to operate without serious help from outside forces.