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Punitive damages

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Full-Text Articles in Legal Remedies

Eliminating The Need For Caps On Title Vii Damage Awards: The Shield Of Kolstad V. American Dental Association, Michael C. Harper Jan 2011

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 …


Punitive Damages In Securities Arbitration: An Empirical Study, Stephen Choi, Theodore Eisenberg Jun 2010

Punitive Damages In Securities Arbitration: An Empirical Study, Stephen Choi, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article provides the first empirical analysis of punitive damages in securities arbitrations. Using a data set of over 6,800 securities arbitration awards, we find that claimants prevailed in 48.9 percent of arbitrations and that 9.1 percent of those claimant victories included a punitive damages award. The existence of a punitive damages award was associated with claims that suggested egregious misbehavior and with claims that provided higher compensatory awards. The pattern of punitive awards is more consistent with a traditional view of punitive damages that incorporates a retributive component than with a law and economics emphasis on efficient deterrence. We …


Saving Lives Through Punitive Damages, Joni Hersch, W. Kip Viscusi Jan 2010

Saving Lives Through Punitive Damages, Joni Hersch, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article proposes that the value of statistical life ("VSL ") be used to set the total damages amount needed for deterrence when punitive damages are warranted in wrongful death cases. The appropriate level of total damages should be achieved by adjusting the value of punitive damages. Compensatory damages should not be distorted to establish the total damages level needed for efficient deterrence. Attempts to introduce hedonic damages as a compensatory damages component, and proposals to use the VSL on a routine basis when setting compensatory damages awards, are misguided and will undermine the insurance and compensation functions of compensatory …


A Common Lawyer’S Perspective On The European Perspective On Punitive Damages, Michael Wells Jan 2010

A Common Lawyer’S Perspective On The European Perspective On Punitive Damages, Michael Wells

Scholarly Works

Punitive damages are generally available in common law jurisdictions, but are disfavored in civil law systems. This paper argues that the main reasons for the difference are historical and cultural. Roman law and the French Revolution heavily influenced the civil law. Civilians were taught that legal development comes from the top down. They learned to treat law as a system of general principles and to resist anomalies. They found it relatively easy to reject the intrusion of criminal themes into private law. The common law developed one case at a time, with no particular emphasis on systematic coherence. It was …


Ascertaining The Burden Of Proof For An Award For Punitive Damages In New York? Consult Your Local Appellate Division, Leon D. Lazer, John R. Higgitt Jan 2009

Ascertaining The Burden Of Proof For An Award For Punitive Damages In New York? Consult Your Local Appellate Division, Leon D. Lazer, John R. Higgitt

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


Remedies And The Supreme Court's October 2007 Term, Steven H. Steinglass Sep 2008

Remedies And The Supreme Court's October 2007 Term, Steven H. Steinglass

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

For this third annual review of Supreme Court decisions, I have identified three cases from very different areas all of which involve the remedies available for violations of federal law. These cases deal with the following issues: (a) federal remedies for state violations of federal labor policy (Chamber of Commerce); (b) state remedies for violations of the federal Bill of Rights (Danforth) and (c) federal common law standards for awarding punitive damages (Exxon Shipping).


Significant Association Between Punitive And Compensatory Damages In Blockbuster Cases: A Methodological Primer, Theodore Eisenberg, Martin T. Wells Mar 2006

Significant Association Between Punitive And Compensatory Damages In Blockbuster Cases: A Methodological Primer, Theodore Eisenberg, Martin T. Wells

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article assesses the relation between punitive and compensatory damages in a data set, gathered by Hersch and Viscusi (H-V), consisting of all known punitive damages awards in excess of $100 million from 1985 through 2003. It shows that a strong, statistically significant relation exists between punitive and compensatory awards, a relation that replicates similar findings in nearly all other analyses of punitive and compensatory damages. H-V's claim that no significant relation exists between punitive and compensatory awards in these data appears to be an artifact of questionable regression methodology.


U.S. Supreme Court Tort Reform: Limiting State Power To Articulate And Develop Its Own Tort Law–Defamation, Preemption, And Punitive Damages, Thomas C. Galligan Aug 2005

U.S. Supreme Court Tort Reform: Limiting State Power To Articulate And Develop Its Own Tort Law–Defamation, Preemption, And Punitive Damages, Thomas C. Galligan

ExpressO

U.S. Supreme Court Tort Reform: Limiting State Power to Articulate and Develop Its Own Tort Law–Defamation, Preemption, and Punitive Damages analyzes and critiques the three primary areas in which the U.S. Supreme Court has found federal constitutional limits on a state’s power to articulate, develop, and apply its common law of torts. It is the first piece to consider all three areas together as an emerging body of jurisprudence which Professor Galligan calls U.S. Supreme Court tort reform. After setting forth a modest model of adjudication, the article applies that model to each of the three areas: defamation and related …


Supreme Court 2002 Term - The Property Cases: Iolta, Qui Tam Actions, And Punitive Damages (Symposium: The Fifteenth Annual Supreme Court Review), Leon D. Lazer Jan 2004

Supreme Court 2002 Term - The Property Cases: Iolta, Qui Tam Actions, And Punitive Damages (Symposium: The Fifteenth Annual Supreme Court Review), Leon D. Lazer

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.


The Blockbuster Punitive Damages Awards, W. Kip Viscusi Jan 2004

The Blockbuster Punitive Damages Awards, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This paper provides an analysis of 64 punitive damages awards of at least $100 million. Based on an inventory of these cases, there is evidence that these blockbuster awards are highly concentrated geographically, as two states account for 27 of the 64 awards. The awards also have been rising substantially over time, with the majority of these blockbuster awards taking place since 1999. An assessment of the current status of the blockbuster punitive damages awards indicates that most of these awards have been appealed, but the reversal of these punitive damages awards is the exception rather than the rule. Many …


Punitive Damages: How Judges And Juries Perform, Joni Hersch, W. Kip Viscusi Jan 2004

Punitive Damages: How Judges And Juries Perform, Joni Hersch, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This paper presents the first empirical anatysis that demonstrates that juries differ from judges in awarding punitive damages. Our review of punitive damages awards of $100 million or more identified 63 such awards, of which juries made 95 percent. These jury awards are highly unpredictable and are not significantly correlated with compensatory damages. Using data on jury and bench verdicts from the Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1996, we find that juries are significantly more likely to award punitive damages than are judges and award higher levels of punitive damages. Jury awards are also less strongly related to compensatory …


The Foggy Road For Evaluating Punitive Damages: Lifting The Haze From The Bmw/State Farm Guideposts, Steven L. Chanenson, John Y. Gotanda Jan 2004

The Foggy Road For Evaluating Punitive Damages: Lifting The Haze From The Bmw/State Farm Guideposts, Steven L. Chanenson, John Y. Gotanda

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Article, Professors Chanenson and Gotanda propose that courts treat comparable maximum criminal or civil legislative fines as a presumptive due process limit on punitive damage awards. The Article reviews the manner in which courts have implemented the three-guidepost framework for constitutional review of punitive awards laid out by the Supreme Court in BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore and in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell. Finding that courts have struggled to articulate a coherent rationale and methodology for review of such awards, the authors propose a greater reliance on the third guidepost of …


The Impact Of Recent U.S. Supreme Court Punitive Damages Jurisprudence On Oklahoma's Punitive Damages Statute And Jury Instructions, Andrew C. Jayne Jan 2004

The Impact Of Recent U.S. Supreme Court Punitive Damages Jurisprudence On Oklahoma's Punitive Damages Statute And Jury Instructions, Andrew C. Jayne

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.


Nullificatory Juries, Kaimipono David Wenger, David A. Hoffman Jan 2003

Nullificatory Juries, Kaimipono David Wenger, David A. Hoffman

All Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, we argue that current debates on the legitimacy of punitive damages would benefit from a comparison with jury nullification in criminal trials. We discuss critiques of punitive damages and of jury nullification, noting the surprising similarities in the arguments scholars use to attack these (superficially) distinct outcomes of the jury guarantee. Not only are the criticisms alike, the institutions of punitive damages and jury nullification also turn out to have many similarities: both are, we suggest, examples of what we call "nullificatory juries." We discuss the features of such juries, and consider recent behavioral data relating to …


A Taxing Settlement, Hanoch Dagan, James J. White Jan 2003

A Taxing Settlement, Hanoch Dagan, James J. White

Articles

The following essay is based on the talk "Government, Citizens, and Injurious Industries: A Case Study of the Tobacco Litigation," delivered by Hanoch Dagan last May to the Detroit Chapter of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, and on the article "Governments, Citizens, and Injurious Industries," by Dagan and James J. White, '62, which appeared in 75.2 New York University Law Review 254-428 (May 2000). The authors hold conflicting view on the underlying issue of this topic: tobacco company product liability. Professor Dagan holds the position that tobacco companies are liable for harm done by their products; Professor …


Juries, Judges, And Punitive Damages: An Empirical Study, Theodore Eisenberg, Neil Lafountain, Brian Ostrom, David Rottman, Martin T. Wells Mar 2002

Juries, Judges, And Punitive Damages: An Empirical Study, Theodore Eisenberg, Neil Lafountain, Brian Ostrom, David Rottman, Martin T. Wells

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article, the first broad-based analysis of punitive damages in judge-tried cases, compares judge and jury performance in awarding punitive damages and in setting their levels. Data covering one year of judge and jury trial outcomes from forty-five of the nation's largest counties yield no substantial evidence that judges and juries differ in the rate at which they award punitive damages or in the central relation between the size of punitive awards and compensatory awards. The relation between punitive and compensatory awards in jury trials is strikingly similar to the relation in judge trials. For a given level of compensatory …


No Harm, No Foul?: An Argument For The Allowance Of Punitive Damages Without Compensatory Damages Under 42 U.S.C. § 1981a, Christy Lynn Mcquality Mar 2002

No Harm, No Foul?: An Argument For The Allowance Of Punitive Damages Without Compensatory Damages Under 42 U.S.C. § 1981a, Christy Lynn Mcquality

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Impact Of State Prohibitions Of Punitive Damages On Libel Litigation: An Empirical Analysis, Dennis Hale Jan 2002

The Impact Of State Prohibitions Of Punitive Damages On Libel Litigation: An Empirical Analysis, Dennis Hale

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This Article explores the role of punitive damages in media libel cases by measuring the quantity and quality of libel appeals for a ten-year period in states with and without punitive damages. Specifically, the Article identifies appellate court decisions for media libel cases over a ten year period from 1986 to 1995, comparing five states with punitive damages (Alabama, New Mexico, South Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee) to five states without punitive damages (Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Oregon and Washington). Each appeal of a federal or state media libel case was coded for the following characteristics: year, whether the media won …


The Latest Word From The Supreme Court On Punitive Damages (Symposium: The Thirteenth Annual Supreme Court Review), Leon D. Lazer Jan 2001

The Latest Word From The Supreme Court On Punitive Damages (Symposium: The Thirteenth Annual Supreme Court Review), Leon D. Lazer

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.


Judgement As A Matter Of Law On Punitive Damages, Colleen P. Murphy Dec 2000

Judgement As A Matter Of Law On Punitive Damages, Colleen P. Murphy

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Governments, Citizens, And Injurious Industries, Hanoch Dagan, James J. White Jan 2000

Governments, Citizens, And Injurious Industries, Hanoch Dagan, James J. White

Articles

In this Article, Professors Hanoch Dagan and James White study the most recent challenge raised by mass torts litigation: the interference of governments with the bilateral relationship between citizens and injurious industries. Using the tobacco settlement as their case study, Dagan and White explore the important benefits and the grave dangers of recognizing governments' entitlement to reimbursement for costs they have incurred in preventing or ameliorating their citizens' injuries. They further demonstrate that the current law can help capture these benefits and guard against the entailing risks, showing how subrogation law can serve as the legal foundation of the governments' …


The Role Of "Stories" In Civil Jury Judgments, Reid Hastie Dec 1999

The Role Of "Stories" In Civil Jury Judgments, Reid Hastie

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

A brief review of psychological theories of juror decision making is followed by an introduction to "explanation-based" theories of judgment. Prior empirical studies of explanation-based processes in juror decision making are then reviewed. An original empirical study of jurors' judgments concerning liability for punitive damages is presented to illustrate the explanation-based approach to civil decisions.


"Crimtorts" As Corporate Just Deserts, Thomas Koenig, Michael Rustad Dec 1998

"Crimtorts" As Corporate Just Deserts, Thomas Koenig, Michael Rustad

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Just as Grant Gilmore described "contorts" that lie on the borderline between contract and tort law, the authors coin the term "crimtort" to identify the expanding common ground between criminal and tort law. Although the concept of crimtort can be broadly applied to many areas of the law, this Article focuses on the primary crimtort remedy - punitive damages. The deterrent power of punitive damages lies in the wealth-calibration of the defendant's punishment. For corporations this means that punitive damages will reflect the firm's net income or net worth. The theoretical danger is that juries will abuse wealth by redistributing …


Measuring The Deterrent Effect Of Punitive Damages, Theodore Eisenberg Nov 1998

Measuring The Deterrent Effect Of Punitive Damages, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Professor Viscusi's article differs from the dominant mode of law and economics scholarship on punitive damages. The usual punitive damages article contains purely theoretical considerations about when punitive damages are appropriate and about their optimal level; no effort is made to ascertain whether the existing pattern of punitive awards corresponds with the theory. This is part of a larger problem: the dearth of empirical evidence in law and economics scholarship. Viscusi, on the other hand, provides empirical tests of whether punitive damages accomplish their goals, and he makes creative use of publicly available data sources. For the goal of his …


Attempted Cap On Punitive Damages Continues To Spark Debate, Susan J. Becker Jan 1996

Attempted Cap On Punitive Damages Continues To Spark Debate, Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The debate surrounding federal product liability law has not been silenced by recent compromises reached by the House and Senate regarding appropriate boundaries for such laws. To the contrary, President Clinton's threatened veto of Congress's Common Sense Product Liability Reform Act of 1996 and continued opposition by the ABA Section of Litigation and other groups to parts of the Act guarantee that the 20-year-old debate will continue to rage.


Punitive Damages And Regulated Products, Teresa Moran Schwartz Jan 1993

Punitive Damages And Regulated Products, Teresa Moran Schwartz

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.


Poetic Justice: Punitive Damages And Legal Pluralism, Marc Galanter, David Luban Jan 1993

Poetic Justice: Punitive Damages And Legal Pluralism, Marc Galanter, David Luban

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Historical Continuity Of Punitive Damages Awards: Reforming The Tort Reformers, Michael Rustad, Thomas Koenig Jan 1993

The Historical Continuity Of Punitive Damages Awards: Reforming The Tort Reformers, Michael Rustad, Thomas Koenig

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.


Punitive Damages Reform-State Legislatures Can And Should Meet The Challenge Issued By The Supreme Court Of The United States In Haslip, Victor F. Schwartz, Mark A. Behrens Jan 1993

Punitive Damages Reform-State Legislatures Can And Should Meet The Challenge Issued By The Supreme Court Of The United States In Haslip, Victor F. Schwartz, Mark A. Behrens

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.


Punitive Damages And Regulated Products, Teresa Moran Schwartz Jan 1993

Punitive Damages And Regulated Products, Teresa Moran Schwartz

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.