Originally Posted by Mike Jenvey
Sorry,
NSF, the bulk of the award was punitive!!
That breakdown actually just underlines how crazy US damages have become.
$2.5 million for "emotional suffering" is wild over-compensation at its best.
And then putting a $25 million windfall "lottery win" into the claimant's pocket on some spurious "punitive" basis has no proper jurisprudential logic behind it. Why should a company be punished to that extent on the basis of a civil claim? Shouldn't punishment be meted out only by criminal courts, with proper criminal law/procedure safeguards for the scrupulous fairness that's demanded in that field? And - even if there were some regulatory argument in favour of punitive damages on this scale - what is the justification for putting the fruits of that punishment into the pocket of the person who, by chance, happens to be the person with a case to bring?