Jim Goodwin doesn't take car shopping lightly.

The University City man is the kind of consumer who does his research, and he recognizes the sticker price is just a starting point for negotiations.

When he bought his Honda Accord in April 2009, it was a buyer's market. Because of a credit crunch, the new car market had tanked.

Goodwin realized he was in the driver's seat, and the haggling continued right up until closing time at Stephen Vincel Honda in Ellisville.

It was the last day of a Honda rebate program. During breaks in the price negotiations with a Vincel salesman, Goodwin would call other area Honda dealerships to see whether they would offer a better price.

After Goodwin and the Vincel salesman eventually came to terms, it was time for the endless paperwork that goes along with buying a new car.

And that's when Goodwin found out about what he calls the 'spineless" $149 document processing fee Vincel charged customers.

"Springing that on me after we already negotiated didn't seem like a good way to do business," said Goodwin, 37.

His beef was as much about principle as price.

Though the fee was "a chunk of change," he said, "the bigger problem is, I can't think of another (type of) business that adds a surcharge after you've already agreed on a price."

Goodwin thought about walking away, but it was too late to go to another dealership and still qualify for the manufacturer's promotion. So he begrudgingly paid the fee.

Soon, he could get half of it back — albeit in the form of dealership credit instead of cash.

Thousands of Vincel customers could qualify for partial refunds as part of a settlement to a class-action suit accusing the dealership of illegally practicing law without a license.

Dealers say so-called "doc" fees are reasonable compensation for processing work related to vehicle titles and car loans. Critics say the fees greatly exceed the real cost of that work, that the fees are almost pure profit.

"They're rip-offs," said Rob Swearingen of the nonprofit Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.

Swearingen, who often handles auto-related case for Legal Services' indigent and elderly clients, said he sees doc fees on just about every vehicle sales contract that lands on his desk.

In 2007, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that financial institutions that charge fees for processing mortgage-related documents violated the state's prohibition on nonlawyers charging for legal work.

After that ruling, suits were filed against scores of Missouri auto dealerships that charged doc fees.

The dealers took their case to the state Legislature, and a 2009 Missouri law made the fees legal — provided they're properly disclosed and less than $200. The law — which worked its way through the Legislature and was signed by Gov. Jay Nixon with little fanfare — isn't retroactive. So it doesn't affect the many lawsuits involving fees before the law was passed, which are still working their way through the courts.

The Vincel case involves doc fees of $79 and $149 charged to car buyers from May 5, 2003, to July 1, 2009, when the new law took effect.

John Campbell, a class-action lawyer at downtown's Simon Law Firm, said 13,734 Vincel customers paid the fee. Under the terms of a proposed settlement, they would be issued about $800,000 in gift cards they could apply toward servicing their cars or buying new ones at Vincel. Consumers would get cards valued at half the amount they paid in doc fees.

Campbell said his firm would get about $50,000 under the proposed settlement.

Vincel has signed off on the settlement, but it still needs final approval from St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen Levy Siwak.

Kerry Brown, a manager at Vincel, declined to comment.

Sam Barbee, president and chief executive of the Missouri Automobile Dealers Association, said charging doc fees is a common practice. There's nothing wrong with the fees, he said, and lawmakers were right to legalize them.

Consumers can refuse to pay, but the dealers that charge them are unlikely to budge.

Goodwin has better advice.

He said that the next time he is shopping for a car, he'll demand dealers provide a full rundown of any add-on fees before he starts talking price. And Goodwin said he'll subtract the amount of those fees from his last, best offer.