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1) IANAL, but it's mentioned in The Verge that it was actually considered unusual for the judge to even consider KPCB's request to dismiss the punitive damages claim

2) If, as you claim, the jury will be unduly influenced by the judge's ruling, KPCB's lawyers have only themselves to blame. They filed that motion. Their lawyers are extremely experienced and should have known what the result would be if the judge made a ruling denying their request. This leads me to believe that in practice these rulings do not unduly influence juries; especially because the judge specifically noted in his ruling that:

"Interpreting the evidence most favorably to Ms. Pao and most strongly against Kleiner Perkins, and resolving all presumptions, inferences, and doubts in favor of Ms. Pao, as I am required to do on a nonsuit motion... there is sufficient evidence..."

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/21/8267273/judge-in-kleiner-p...

This article contains better quotes from the ruling: http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/21/8267273/judge-in-kleiner-p...

"Defendant Kleiner Perkins’ motion for nonsuit on plaintiff Ms. Pao’s request for punitive damages is denied. Interpreting the evidence most favorably to Ms. Pao and most strongly against Kleiner Perkins, and resolving all presumptions, inferences, and doubts in favor of Ms. Pao, as I am required to do on a nonsuit motion (Wegner, Fairbank, and Epstein, California Practice Guide: Cilvil Trials and Evidence (The Rutter Group 2014) 12:203), there is sufficient evidence from which a reasonable juror could find, as to Ms. Pao’s claims for gender discrimination and retaliation, that Kleiner Perkins acted with malice, fraud or oppression. Per this standard, there is sufficient evidence from which a reasonable juror could conclude that Kleiner Perkins engaged in intentional gender discrimination by failing to promote Ms. Pao and terminating her employment and that Kleiner Perkins attempted to hide its illegal conduct by offering knowingly false and pre textual explanations for its decisions not to promote Ms. Pao and to terminate her employment. […]

Similarly, per the nonsuit standard, there is sufficient evidence from which a reasonable juror could conclude that Kleiner Perkins retaliated against Ms. Pao for making a protected complaint in December 2011 and January 2012 and for filing this lawsuit by failing to promote her and terminating her employment and that Kleiner Perkins attempted to hide its illegal conduct by offering knowingly false and pre textual explanations for its decisions not to promote Ms. Pao and to terminate her employment."

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The judge is essentially saying that IF one interprets all the evidence and testimony, strongly in favor of Pao and against KP, then there would be malice/fraud/oppression. The judge explicitly states that he is following a mandatory legal standard. This is not his subjective interpretation. The judge is not saying anything about the actual strength of Pao's case.

I submitted this story a few days ago which didn't get any upvotes but elaborates on your point

http://recode.net/2015/03/20/ellen-pao-and-the-case-of-the-m...

> Ellen Pao said she filed her gender discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partly because of three female administrative assistants who had been discriminated against because of their gender — and only with Pao’s lawsuit and a meaningful settlement would the firm take women’s issues seriously.

> There is only one problem: No one in the courtroom seems to know where these admins are. No one seems to know the details of their grievances. No one in court, including Pao, even knows all their names.

> Pao also said she was told by Kleiner Perkins talent partner Juliet de Baubigny that Nazre was a “sex addict.” To her, that pointed to a larger unspoken history. “I thought she must have additional information and maybe about the administrative assistants,” Pao said.

> Asked on the stand today whether she ever called Nazre a “sex addict,” de Baubigny replied, “No, that is completely ridiculous.”

Would being a sex addict be punishable in court? I mean is it in any way illegal?

You're supposed to feel sorry enough for her to give her millions.

I guess I just don't understand why any of that couldn't be chalked up to conflicted feelings. Couldn't all the things you're saying be true, and yet Kliener Perkins be guilty of discrimination? Why does her imperfect behavior matter if she's not on trial?

> Pao should lose here.

The thing I find scary is: how many hard-won discrimination battles has she undone by crying wolf? It doesn't matter what the court decides, your logical deduction is probably the same that many people will make.

Talking up against gender discrimination is hard; even harder when nobody is taking you seriously because somebody else cried wolf.

IANAL but aren't rulings like this made out of hearing of the jury?

And, while they may be hard to avoid, aren't juries instructed to avoid news accounts of the case they are hearing?

Deleted comment

There is such a thing as being victimized by someone claiming to be a victim. If it's ever happened to your firm -- or to a team within your firm -- your understanding of the scope of the full spectrum of human behavior will change, permanently.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got, growing up, was this: "Even if you have not (yet) experienced, in your youth, a very broad range of human behavior, you can compensate by imagining the range of behavior that an officer of the law with 20 years on the force has probably seen."

The facts are pretty clear, it comes off as a 'frivolous' lawsuit in my opinion.

1) There has been no female at the firm -- or any female, or Pao's attorney would've had them in court -- claim that KPCB has gender discrimination problems. And there have been several women in court testifying about this issue. No one backs her up.

2) She claims that KPCB didn't do anything to get Ajit Nazre to stop pestering her. But in fact, the leader of the firm was going to fire Nazre. And Pao intervened, begging them not to fire Nazre.

It seems like a frivolous case to me. Don't know how else you'd describe it.

Of course it's a frivolous case, but the US legal system is incredibly misandric/anti-male, as every man who's every been in a divorce case in the US can testify. It's Pao's rational self-interest to exploit the misandry of the US legal system.

I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. An all male partner party for Al Gore is pretty strong evidence of discrimination, in my opinion.

How? Kleiner partners and Kleiner ladies probably diverge in their ideas of what's fun.

I'm often not invited to my colleagues parties, and I don't invite them -- we are very different.

you seriously asking me this? the issue at stake is not being invited solely on the basis of one's sex. Discrimination based on sex is prohibited by law

That's not what "frivolous" means.

?? A 'frivolous' lawsuit is a case with no merit. From Merriam-Webster:

Full Definition of FRIVOLOUS

a : of little weight or importance b : having no sound basis (as in fact or law) <a frivolous lawsuit>

Granted, it's only my opinion the case has no merit, that she's filed a frivolous lawsuit.

And even if she loses, her "In for a penny, in for a pound" team of lawyers will probably appeal -- they're probably working pro-bono ("Yay! We're going to get rich suing the almighty KPCB!") and might well think "we got this far, filing the appeal has a chance and it's not that much more work."

If she'd had a few female witnesses back up her story that "gender discrimination is rampant at KPCB, and gender discrimination is why I was never promoted."

She's got none. ZERO. Her whole case is 'gender discrimination.' Since there are no witnesses to concur, it's looking more and more that the stuff she pulled on Komisar and her list of enemies at the firm really do add up to "crummy performer" as the reason she didn't get a promo.

Are you aware that she told her bosses "give me ten million dollars and I'll disappear" ? That comes across as borderline extortion.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-pao-asked-for-10-millio...

This article agrees with you:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102537722