Courts are being inundated with apparently trivial lawsuits — from a woman who wants Geico to pay for the sexually-transmitted disease she got in her lover’s car, to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup buyers unhappy with the craftsmanship of their chocolate Halloween pumpkins and ghosts.

A deluge of “tort” cases, some of which attorneys hope to turn into class actions, is targeting businesses, while some lawyers are finding the evidence to back their cases by trolling social media for people complaining about everyday products.

But the sums they generate can be far from trivial — especially for the lawyers who can earn 20% of the damages, often seeking minimum $5 million in compensation in federal cases .

And critics say that 14,376 “tort” cases in 2022 alone — with damages of $3.4 billion paid out between 2020 and 2022 — are both clogging the courts, and costing consumers.

Wayne Winegarden, a tort-reform advocate and senior fellow at pro-free market think tank Pacific Research Institute, said: “They leave less time to adjudicate cases that have merit.

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“And some companies settle to make frivolous cases go away. They pay a troll-toll and the cost trickles down to consumers.”

But attorneys bringing some of the cases say that they prevent false advertising.

Anthony Russo, who has successfully gone after Wendy’s, Taco Bell and Arby’s told The Post: “Today it might be a $5 fast-food item.

“Tomorrow it’s a vehicle or a home. There needs to be truth in advertising.”

Another tort attorney is Spencer Sheehan, a Long Island lawyer nicknamed the “vanilla vigilante” for winning $2.6 million for showing Almond Breeze did not have enough vanilla in its supposedly flavored almond milk — of which he received an estimated $550,000, according to the American Tort Reform Association — and who is at the center of multiple cases, some highlighted here by The Post.

He rejected criticisms of clogging courts and said: “What resources are diverted? What is more critical? The underlying laws upon which these cases are based are intended to protect consumers, enacted by governments at federal and state level.”

Nikko D’Ambrosio, 32, is suing Meta and 27 women for at least $75 million for appearing on a Facebook group called “Are We Dating the Same Guy?”

The private page, followed by thousands of women, says it aims to keep “each other safe from toxic men.”

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But D’Ambrosio, 32, of Chicago alleges that posts, including ones which said he was “very clingy very fast” and had ghosted a woman after he slept with her” were lies — and that his profile photo was plastered across the internet without his consent.

He is suing for defamation, invasion of privacy and emotional distress. And his attorney Dan Nikolic told The Post, it could open the floodgates for other men mentioned in the group, who have been contacting him asking about suing too. Meta has not responded to the suit and did not comment.

Burger King is being sued in a class action over its $4.19 Whoppers, with lawyers asking: “Where’s the beef?”

Attorney Anthony Russo, says the Whoppers people buy don’t match the ads — and that Burger King should pay out for misleading the hungry.

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His case, alleging unjust enrichment, cites social media comments which unflatteringly contrast the ads with burgers bought from restaurants and alleges that the burgers in the ads are 35% bigger and contain twice the meat of the real deal.

“What you get is wilted lettuce, a deflated bun and sometimes gray meat. You need to be served what is advertised,” he said.

No value has been put on the class action, but Burger King are defending it. A spokesman said it uses the same patties in photoshoots for ads as in Whoppers served to the public.

When a woman known only as M.O. in Jackson County, Missouri, had sex with her lover M.B. in his 2014 Hyundai Genesis in 2017, he never told her he had the sexually-transmitted HPV, she claims.

A year later she was diagnosed with it — so she asked his car insurer, Geico, to pay $1 million for her injuries and financial losses.

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The case has turned into a sprawling legal saga after Geico rejected her claim, partly because sex in a car is not one of its normal uses, and partly because M.B. told its investigators both that he warned the woman about HPV before their unprotected sex, and that they had sex in many other locations.

The case went to arbitration — with the woman getting a $5.3 million award — then state and federal courts as Geico fought to overturn the payout.

And although the woman lost her last appeal, one of Geico’s attorneys said the case remains active.

After purchasing $12.99 40-day Alcon Laboratories eye drops, Clark Alexandre says they only lasted 20 days: so he wants damages.

In legal papers, his attorney Spencer Sheehan, the “vanilla vigilante” said Alexandre and other buyers “would not have bought the product or they would have paid less for it” if they’d know the drops were for 20 days, and said damages would be at least $5 million.

Sheehan could receive as much as 20% of that, or at least $1 million, if the claim succeeds. Alcon has filed to have the case dismissed.

Sam Antar is suing BetMGM, the online arm of casino company MGM Resorts, which owns the Bellagio in Las Vegas, claiming it ignored his gambling problem and instead loaded him up with freebies to get him to gamble more.

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Antar claims he got a free hotel room at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, and the amounts he put in his online gambling account matched by BetMGM — and then lost $350,000.

He is suing under New Jersey consumer law claiming BetMGM “exploited” his gambling addiction even though the signs were obvious.

MGM has called Antar a “fraudster” in court documents and denied it created or worsened his problem.

Antar’s attorney, Matthew Litt, told The Post, “When Sam said he wanted to stop gambling, that was not respected.”

The label on Reynolds Wrap brags “foil made in U.S.A.”

But “vanilla vigilante” Sheehan, on behalf of consumers who include Veronica Shirley, who lives in Chicago and buys her $4.99 wrap at Walmart, is calling that fake advertising — because “virtually none” of the raw materials are domestically sourced.

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Patriotic customers, he alleges, are being misled because the bauxite from which the aluminum is derived, is not from the U.S. He is demanding at least $5 million in damages for fraud and negligent misrepresentation.

Asked what the harm is, Sheehan told The Post, “People buy a product or service based on what it says on the label.”

The case has already been in court for a year, with Reynolds trying to have it dismissed.

Amy Schneider of Los Angeles and Erika Opgenorth of Baldwinsville, New York, claim they purchased $30 EltaMD Transparent Zinc Oxide sunscreen because they believed zinc oxide was the main ingredient.

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Now their attorney Ben Heikali is suing EltaMD’s makers Colgate-Palmolive and its partner CP Skin Health Group accusing them of false advertising and unfair competition because Transparent Zinc Oxide contains other chemicals which, he says, the women thought they were avoiding.

Heikali is seeking at least $5 million in damages in the case. Colgate Palmolive have denied the claims and it is now headed for compulsory mediation to try to avoid a trial.

Nonni’s packaging promised their $3.68, 6.88 oz box of limone biscotti contained lemon zest oil.

But in another of vanilla vigilante Sheehan’s cases, filed on behalf of Lisa Bardsley, he is demanding damages of at least $5 million because the actual ingredients do not list lemon zest oil — just “natural flavors.

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Nonni’s, owned by a private-equity firm, attempted unsuccessfully to have the case dismissed and now face a continuing battle against the unjust enrichment allegations.

The makers of cat food Purina are being sued because, according to attorney Joshua Arisohn on behalf of pet owners Adrienne Pietre and Brenda Natoli, it claims its brands are “natural”— but they actually contain synthetic ingredients.

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Natoli alleges that she bought their ONE +Plus Indoor Advantage Real Salmon #1 Ingredient Dry Cat Food for $14 believing it was a “natural product” but found it contained glycerin, zinc sulfate and copper sulfate as some of the not-so-natural ingredients. 

The suit is asking for at least $5 million in damages and a revised label from Nestle Purina, the manufacturers, who have asked for it to be dismissed, saying the claim has no merit.

Hershey’s $8.49 bags of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were supposed to be shaped like pumpkins, ghosts, bats and footballs — but according to Florida attorney Anthony Russo, they were just blobs of chocolate.

Insufficiently scared customer Cynthia Kelly is suing through Russo in a class action, demanding at least $5 million in damages under Florida law, saying the label showed each piece of candy with “carved out” features, but the reality did not deliver.

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Russo turned to the internet for evidence with the complaint quoting a YouTube who claimed, “We were lied to” and another who described themselves as “flabbergasted” over the discrepancy between what was allegedly promised and what was delivered — although they won’t share the payout unless they join the suit, and win.

Hersey has still to respond to the case and has previously said it does not comment on pending litigation.