Emsworth
Junior Chimp
Posts: 9,054
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« on: April 21, 2005, 02:14:18 PM » |
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« edited: April 21, 2005, 02:17:00 PM by Emsworth »
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My fellow citizens of the Northeast,
As you are no doubt aware, juries across Atlasia have often awarded outlandish punitive damages to defendants. Consider, for example, that one jury awarded $8 million in punitive damages in an age discrimination case (Maiorino v. Schering-Plough Corp). Another runaway jury awarded $145 million (!) for fraudulent insurance practices. The Supreme Court reduced this sum to $9 million - still quite a hefty sum (Campbell v. State Farm).
It has been argued that instituting such caps would deprive plaintiffs of their rights. On the contrary, it would do no such thing. This initiative would not limit any compensatory damages, that is, damages for economic or noneconomic losses.
The effects of excessively high awards are numerous. The most obvious inolves medicine: doctors must pay ever-higher premiums for medical liability insurance due to frivolously high claims for punitive damages. Clearly, the time has come for the region to act by capping punitive damages.
Therefore, I wish to propose the following ballot initiative for the Northeast Region:
§ I. Cap on Punitive Damages
No court shall award punitive damages exceeding $500,000 in any civil case.
§ II. Applicability
Section I shall not retroactively apply to any actions committed prior to this Act's passage.
§ III. Compensatory Damages
The provisions of this act shall not be construed to limit the award of compensatory damages.
Of course, I welcome alternative proposals and amendments to this scheme.
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