The failure of punitive damages in employment discrimination cases: a call for change.
ABSTRACT Punitive damages were described by one early court as "an unsightly and an unhealthy excrescense." Although views toward punitive relief have changed over the years, the debate over the availability of exemplary damages in the judicial system has remained controversial. No place is that controversy more...

Exxon Shipping Company v. Baker: Chipping Away At Punitive Damages Awards.
The United States Supreme Court has issued its latest opinion addressing the excessiveness of punitive damages in the case of Exxon Shipping Company v. Baker1. The case arose from the calamitous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska and efforts by over 32,000 Native Alaskans, commercial...

Supreme Court Clarifies The Availability Of Punitive Damages For Wrongful Dismissal.
On June 27, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned a punitive damage award of $100,000 against an employer in the landmark wrongful dismissal case of Honda Canada Inc. v. Kevin Keays.1 This was a highly controversial case, which began with an award of $500,000 for punitive...

New Jersey Jury Awards Deaf Patient $400,000 For Physician's Failure To Provide Sign Language Interpreter.
A Hudson County jury recently awarded $400,000 to a deaf patient whose physician refused to provide her with an American Sign Language ("ASL") interpreter. The award included $200,000 in punitive damages. The doctor's malpractice carrier did not defend and denied coverage liability, apparently because there were no allegations of...

Necessary protection: an examination of the State Farm V. Campbell standards test and why economically efficient rules do not work at the intersection between due process and punitive damages.
I. INTRODUCTION In 1994, a District Court of New Mexico awarded a woman $160,000 in compensatory damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages because of the burns caused after the woman spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee on herself. (1) In 1996, the Alabama Supreme Court awarded...

Failure to respond results in death & punitive damages.
CASE ON POINT: Boles v. Parris, No. 1030744 (Ala. 08/18/2006) So.2d --AL ISSUE: Ordinarily, punitive damages are awarded only in the most egregious cases. This clearly was a case for punitive damages! CASE FACTS: On August 17, 1998, Dr. Robert Boles removed a cancerous part...

The Illinois Whistleblower Act's impact on common law claims; this article looks at the various ways Illinois state and federal courts have interpreted the Illinois Whistleblower Act, including whether it preempts common law claims. The authors also offer practical advice to employers for avoiding retaliation claims.
Did self-appointed corporate police suffer a setback when the Illinois Whistleblower Act ("the Act") was enacted? Put differently, and perhaps a bit more delicately, does the Act preempt whistleblower claims under the common law of retaliatory discharge and thereby limit the recourse available to Illinois employees? Courts...

Lynn Tillotson Pinker & Cox LLP Obtains $12.5 Million Verdict for Internet Defamation Case.
DALLAS, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- On February 6, 2009 a federal jury returned a 12.5 million dollar verdict for ORIX Capital Markets LLC ("ORIX") in the first major commercial internet defamation cases tried to verdict in Texas and one of the few tried to verdict in the United States....

Park West Gallery, Defending Itself Against Defamation, Files Counterclaim in Michigan Against Fine Art Registry and Surrogates.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney and FBI Art Team Legal Advisor Robert E. Goldman Joins Park West's Legal Team SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Park West Gallery, one of the world's largest art dealers, is defending itself forcefully against a campaign of defamation and business interference waged...