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Why the laugh? The State caused him injury. Would it be better to leave the injustice alone? Just say sorry? If this were a civil case he'd certainly be awarded monetary damages.

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Not op, but I do agree there is something hilariously ironic about that verdict, given the circumstances. In a “haha serves you right” kind of way.

Compared to payouts in other common law jurisdictions, that is, indeed, laughable.

What would a typical payout be?

I reckon $500 million should do it :P

Add two zeroes. In commom common law, defamation damages are all, but damages: they are a sum of assumed and punitive damages. If accused is a corp., already large punitive damages are scaled to its size.

UK's record damages were in above GPB 2M

Punitive damages are a daft concept and only exist in the USA, I hope.

GPB must be the Guadalupe Banana, right? Perhaps they have punitive damages in Guadalupe...

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