> I suspect the billion dollar settlement will be overturned on appeal as being excessive.
Why?
Why?
> Because they are usually paid in excess of the plaintiff's provable injuries, punitive damages are awarded only in special cases, usually under tort law, if the defendant's conduct was egregiously insidious.
Lopez ruled that more than $1.1 billion of those verdicts, awarded for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, cannot be wiped away in bankruptcy. But he ruled that other parts of the verdicts, including $324 million in attorneys' fees that were awarded as punitive damages in the Connecticut case, could possibly be discharged.
The $1B is a ridiculous number that will never get repaid and it's just to make a big emotional virtuous show. Judges aren't supposed to be emotional, judges aren't supposed to let their personal feelings affect their virdict. If it was say $15, $20, $35 million, the families might get something. It makes a mockery out of the justice system and just goes to show how unserious law is in the US today. Why not $5 trillion? Why not $50 trillion, would that be too obvious where $1 billion somehow is not? Reminds me of the trial in Idiocracy.