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Full-Text Articles in Legal Remedies
Surprisingly Punitive Damages, Bert I. Huang
Surprisingly Punitive Damages, Bert I. Huang
Faculty Scholarship
Damages can add up to super-punitive amounts in unintended ways. To take a textbook example: The Defendant has caused an industrial accident or other mass tort. Plaintiff 1 sues, winning punitive damages based on the reprehensibility of that original act. Plaintiff 2 also sues – and also wins punitive damages on the same grounds. So do Plaintiff 3, Plaintiff 4, and so forth. If each of these punitive awards is directed at the same general badness of that original act, then these punishments are redundant. When such redundancy occurs, even damages that are meant to be punitive can reach surprisingly …
Eliminating The Need For Caps On Title Vii Damage Awards: The Shield Of Kolstad V. American Dental Association, Michael C. Harper
Eliminating The Need For Caps On Title Vii Damage Awards: The Shield Of Kolstad V. American Dental Association, Michael C. Harper
Faculty Scholarship
After recounting the legislative history of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, this article reconsiders the legislative compromise that allowed in this Act for capped compensatory and punitive damages as remedies for Title VII violations. This reconsideration is made in light of the Court’s decision in Kolstad v. American Dental Association, granting employers protection from a punitive damage remedy if they can demonstrate a good faith effort to comply with the Act. The article argues that this holding obviates the need for damage cap protection of innocent employers. It does so by enabling employers to shield themselves from the threat …