noname2200 on 20 July 2014
| Turkish said: Why not 100 billion? How did the damage amount to 23bn exactly? |
Punitive damages are supposed to measured in a way that sufficiently punishes and deters the defendant without being ruinous: the defendant's wealth IS a factor taken into consideration, but in California it's usually capped at 10% of the defendant's total wealth. They also must be proportional to the harm inflicted. The jury here appears to have focused almost exclusively on the punish-and-deter angle.
