In an effort to address the problem of excessive, multiple punishment, the Florida Legislature enacted a statute that “punitive damages may not be awarded against a defendant in a civil action if that defendant establishes, before trial, that punitive damages
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West Virginia Supreme Court Holds That State’s Cap On Punitive Damages Applies To Claims That Arose Before the Statute’s Effective Date
In 2015, West Virginia enacted a statute that caps punitive damages at the greater of $500,000 or four times the compensatory damages. We blogged about the statute here, explaining that the West Virginia legislature was seeking to reform the…
Punitive Damages Overkill Redux: J&J Hit With Another Massive Disproportionate Punitive Award In Talc Litigation
Just about a week after suffering its third punitive award in pelvic-mesh litigation, Johnson & Johnson found itself on the wrong end of a $105 million punitive award—close to 20 times the $5.4 million compensatory award—in litigation alleging that…
Punitive Damages Overkill: J&J Hit With Still Another Disproportionate Punitive Award In Pelvic-Mesh Litigation
As early as 1967, Judge Friendly worried about the phenomenon of punitive damages overkill in mass tort litigation. Fifty years later, the problem persists.
Last week, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, jury awarded a plaintiff $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $17.5…
Bankruptcy Court Imposes Massively Disproportionate $45 Million Punitive Exaction, Then Plays Santa Claus With $40 Million Of It
A bankruptcy judge in the Eastern District of California recently issued a decision that is sure to raise appellate eyebrows.
Concluding in In re Sundquist that the defendant bank had violated the automatic stay by foreclosing on the home of…
Mayer Brown Submits Amicus Brief For Chamber Of Commerce, American Tort Reform Association, And American Insurance Association In Eighth Circuit Appeal Involving Proper Application Of Punitive Damages Guideposts
Seemingly minor legal issues sometimes can have a surprisingly significant effect. That is particularly true with the ratio guidepost because the effect of any dispute about the guidepost’s application is literally multiplied. We recently filed an amicus brief on behalf…
Thomson Reuters Publishes Fourth Edition Of Business And Commercial Litigation In Federal Courts, Containing Our Chapter On Punitive Damages
We are excited to report that in late December Thomson Reuters released the fourth edition of the multi-volume treatise Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts. As in the first three editions, we contributed the chapter on punitive damages—Chapter 48…
Kansas City Gives St. Louis A Run For The Money–Literally
St. Louis and Kansas City have long been cross-state baseball rivals. Who can forget the 1985 I-70 World Series?
So it is hardly surprising that on the eve of St. Louis being named by the American Tort Reform Association as…
Kentucky Court Of Appeals Slashes Punitive Award Against Grant Thornton
A couple of months ago, the Kentucky Court of Appeals in Grant Thornton LLP v. Yung cut a trial court’s award of punitive damages from $80 million to $20 million—reducing the punitive/compensatory ratio to 1:1.…
St. Louis Jury Returns Another Jaw-Dropping Verdict Against Johnson & Johnson
In recent years, St. Louis has done much to earn a place on the American Tort Reform Association’s list of judicial hell holes. Not content to rest on its laurels, the St. Louis circuit court grabbed the headlines again…