Fighting small ripoffs from large companies

Well, the P.S. to your question pretty much forecloses any kind of rational action. There are few if any cases in which a lawsuit over $100, or even $1,000 makes sense. It is exactly for these types of scenarios that class actions were invented. Class actions have been remarkably effective in curbing abuses by large companies. It is precisely because they are so effective that companies have gone to such lengths to discredit them and to make people believe that the lawyers are the only ones who benefit (hence the assumption in your post script). If you have been ripped off by a relatively small amount and really want to do something to curb future abuses, I recommend you seek to serve as a class representative. As a representative you do have the right to influence and sometimes veto any settlement proposal you believe to be inadequate and not in the best interest of the class members (although judges do a pretty good job of this as well).

Those of us who are attorneys have the option of representing ourselves in a lawsuit against those defendants in the appropriate court. However, in my opinion, unless a lawyer has a lot of free time on his hands in which he/she isn't making any money, such lawsuits are uneconomical. Say a lawyer earns about $100 an hour for his work. A local parking lot, to use your example, charges him a $50 late fee just because it shut down early without notice. If the lawyer spends 1/2 hour drawing up a summons, he has already lost income equal to the overcharge. If he spends another hour going to the courthouse to file the summons, he is now down $150. If the court's filing fee for the lawsuit (let's say it is small claims court) is $10, he is now down $160. The first evening the lawyer spends in small claims court will probably take up at least 3 hours of his time; now his income loss is $460. In many places, the defendant will get one adjournment if he asks for it, so if the parking lot's attorney shows up and asks for an adjournment, the lawyer will have to come back another night, waste another 3 hours, and now his lost income equals $760. Let's say he wins his case. He gets awarded $50, plus his $10 filing fee, for a total of $60. No, he does not get compensated for the time and income lost in bringing the suit. So he wins the case, and his net loss is $700. Did it pay for him to bring this suit?

So the answer to your question is, in many instances when you get ripped off for small amounts, you "eat it." If you are unemployed or otherwise have a lot of free time on your hands and you don't mind sitting in night court a lot, you can become one of the "regulars" who is always there suing somebody about something, like the lady I knew who sued Scott Paper Company because their 1000-sheet rolls of toilet paper were often short by a few sheets (she counted). Yes, you might get some moral satisfaction and recoup a few dollars here and there, but in my opinion the wear and tear on your soul isn't worth it. Have you ever seen these habitual plaintiffs who drag their miserable selves to court on a regular basis, footsoldiers in an endless war to get even with the world?

In my opinion there is only one sensible way to deal with most of these small ripoffs: you resolve never to deal with that company again, and perhaps write a complaint letter to whatever agency might regulate them (e.g., the FAA for an airline; the State Insurance Department for an insurance company). Then chalk it up to experience and get on with your life. Life is too short to turn every short miserable experience into a long one.