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Article: The U.S. Supreme Court and punitive damages: on the road to reform: after years of developing its jurisprudence, the Supreme Court in State Farm signals that the days of runaway, irrational punitive damages may be ending.(State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.)
- Article from:
- Defense Counsel Journal
- Article date:
- October 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 International Association of Defense Counsels. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LAST APRIL, the U.S. Supreme Court issued what may be the most important punitive damage ruling ever to come from that Court--State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell. (1) First, the Court set a single-digit multiplier as the ordinary constitutional limit for the permissible ratio between compensatory damages and punitive damages. Second, it also dealt a body blow to the pattern-and-practice cases by imposing a "similarity to the conduct that caused the harm" test on the admissibility of evidence that can be used to prove malice or reprehensibility. It stated: "A defendant's dissimilar acts, independent from the acts upon which liability was premised, may ...