punitive

The Missouri Senate debated a bill on March 27 that would make it more difficult for plaintiffs to claim and win punitive damages.

Scott Sifton, D-Affton, also an attorney, said the bill would make punitive damages "darn near impossible to prove" and said he could think of no amendments that would make the bill palatable.

White alleged that the bill was needed to prevent plaintiffs' lawyers from tacking on punitive damage claims to cases "without any basis" in an effort to drive up settlement values.

Beard presented his case against Wexford to a jury, which awarded him $10,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages.

Beard also contends that the district court erred in reducing the jury's award of punitive damages without offering him a new trial.

According to Judge Cardozo, a penal law effects "vindication of the public justice" rather than "reparation to one aggrieved." Although courts have historically treated punitive damages as a purely civil remedy, that attitude has shifted over time.

If out-of-state defendants already face hostile judges and juries, then the availability of punitive damages (16) significantly multiplies the effect of that hostility.

Even when defendants are at home, however, it is still incongruous for a state court to impose punitive damages based on another state's substantive law.

Punitive damages are sums awarded to tort victims over and above

The availability of punitive damages seems undisputed in most

take the defendant's wealth into account in assessing punitive