Punitive damages are a type of damages that a plaintiff may receive in a civil lawsuit. The purpose of punitive damages is to deter the defendant from acting in a similar manner in the future. Therefore, it is usually defendants who are reckless or who intentionally cause harm to others who are hit with punitive damages. For example, punitive damages are common in medical malpractice cases and cases where defective products have caused injuries to consumers.
What Is the Purpose of Punitive Damages?
Punitive damages are meant to punish the defendant for their behavior and make an example out of them to deter others.
Often, the best way to punish someone for reckless behavior and help them to see the error of their ways is to impose great financial loss. The punitive damages are applied in order to deter them from repeating such behavior in the future. While it is often applied to defendants who are individuals, especially in cases of drunk driving or using a mobile phone while driving, they are often applied to entities in order to encourage policy change.
In that way, punitive damages also seek to deter others from engaging in that behavior. This is most often the case for entities who may see the steep punitive damages a competitor was charged with and decide to change their policies to avoid similar costs. As a legal precedent for imposing punitive damages in those cases has been set, entities will theoretically be more careful and avoid similar behavior.
When Will a Court Charge Punitive Damages?
A court will charge punitive damages when it believes the defendant acted in an intentional, willful, or deceptive manner. It is unlikely to charge punitive damages in cases where the injury occurred accidentally or for negligence. If a defendant, however, is conscious that their behavior is risky and continues, then that is willful or wanton behavior, and they may receive punitive damages. For example, a car accident where a defendant failed to give right of way is negligence. A car accident where the defendant drove blindfolded is willful and wanton disregard for public safety, and the defendant may face punitive damages.
In the case of large corporations, the court may award large punitive damages if it believes the defendant is using its size and power to bully an individual plaintiff.
For example, punitive damages may be ordered in cases like these:
- Workplace discrimination cases
- Drunk driving cases
- Medical malpractice cases
- Unsafe working conditions cases
- Cases where an injury occurred that was easily avoidable
McDonalds and Punitive Damages
You may have heard of the infamous case where someone sued McDonalds after spilling a cup of coffee on them and receiving serious burns. At the time, the media picked up the story and ridiculing someone for suing a corporation for their clumsiness.
While on the surface of things, it does look like a ridiculous case, you can’t really hold McDonalds liable for spilling coffee; there was much more to the story. The plaintiff was Stella Liebeck, and while she did spill coffee on herself, the claim of the case was that the temperature of the coffee was excessively hot and that if it wasn’t, the injury would not have occurred. The plaintiff received serious burns to her lap and was hospitalized for 8 days immediately following the incident. It took two years of treatment and multiple skin grafts for her to recover from her injuries. When the case is framed that way, it seems less ludicrous, we all have spilt coffee on ourselves from time to time, but nobody would expect serious burns as a result.
Therefore, the liability issue, in this case, was down to the temperature of the coffee, not how the coffee was spilled. The evidence at the trial was damming and showed that McDonalds were aware that the serving temperature of their coffee was not safe and that coffee of similar temperatures had caused severe burns in the past. The court recommended $2.7 million in punitive damages in this case. The punitive damages far outstripped the plaintiff’s damages claim of $640,000 to cover medical bills and losses. In the end, the two parties signed a settlement, the amount of which is confidential.