Framework Behind An Award of Punitive Damages

The framework behind an award of punitive damages provides the key players in a courtroom with an added amount of power. A defendant can get hit with punitive damages, if he or she has carried out an act that the court finds offensive. The damage award provides the judge and jury with a way for expressing their outrage.

Primary objectives of punitive damages

• Act as way to deter any attempt to repeat the outrageous behavior.
• Force defendant to pay for performance of that outrageous act. Award acts as a form of retribution.
• Provides judge and jury with a way to denounce and condemn the defendant’s behavior.
Types of conduct denounced by judges and juries
• Extreme, reckless and malicious
• Callous, deliberate or harsh
• Indecent acts, which have exposed the plaintiff to added risk for no good reason.

Restrictions on court as it determines the size of the punitive damages

Court must take a principled approach and should not attempt to extort money from the defendant. It is important to know that damage award should not serve as a type of fee. It should not be so low that the defendant sees the added payment as a means for acquiring a license to profit by disregarding the rights of others.

There is no fixed ratio between the compensation and the punitive damages. Thus, the jury must be told the function of the supplementary award (punitive damages), before it determines the size of that award.

A weakness in the framework

The awarding of punitive damages must take place following the awarding of compensatory damages. If no one has filed a lawsuit against a person that has committed a harmful act, that same person can get away with paying a fee for a license to keep repeating the same act.

Residents can see an example of what type of act can get carried out in a system with such a framework. The owners of one building take money from a company that paints one wall of the building, turning that wall into an advertisement. The owners then get hit with a fee, because the painting is illegal.

Still, the money demanded by the fee does not stop performance of the unwanted action. Indeed, that action allows those that work in the building to be exposed to the toxic fumes from the paint. Those fumes could injure any of the people working in the same building.

In fact, at least one such person did develop a type of lung cancer. Unfortunately, she died before she could prove that exposure to the building’s dangerous chemicals had triggered development of that malignant growth. The wall continues to get painted on a regular basis. However, having a Personal Injury Lawyer in Brantford take up such cases can help the plaintiff get financial assistance to deal with the damages and injuries.