Although the Supreme Court identified three guideposts for evaluating whether a punitive award is unconstitutionally excessive 23 years ago in BMW v. Gore and refined those guideposts 16 years ago in State Farm v. Campbell,...more
7/22/2019
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
Clerical Errors ,
Compensatory Damages ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Default ,
Loans ,
Mortgages ,
Punitive Damages ,
Statutory Violations ,
US Bank National Association
Application of the Supreme Court’s excessiveness guideposts to cases involving multiple defendants is one of the more confounding problems that arises in punitive damages jurisprudence. The Supreme Court of Texas got the...more
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...more
Things have been quiet in the world of punitive damages for the last few months, but two recent decisions substantially reducing punitive awards under the BMW/State Farm factors warrant mention. My colleague Miriam Nemetz...more
10/17/2016
/ Appeals ,
BMW ,
Compensatory Damages ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Emotional Distress Damages ,
False Billing ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Lost Wages ,
Pharmacies ,
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Punitive Damages ,
Remand ,
Retaliation ,
Wage and Hour ,
Walgreens ,
Wrongful Termination
The due process review of a punitive damages award for excessiveness has a number of interconnected parts. A series of relatively small errors can quickly add up and dramatically skew the outcome of a review process that is...more
Although the Supreme Court’s modern due process cases have given lower courts a framework for deciding whether an award of punitive damages is excessive, some lower courts have been misapplying the Supreme Court’s guidance,...more