Punitive damages battle is far from over.(Editorial)

National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, June, 1996

Finally! After wrestling with the issue of the Constitutional limits on punitive damage awards for nearly 10 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken a major step towards restoring a bit of order and sandy to the nation's civil justice system. The high court's unprecedented decision overturning a $2 million punitive damage award in Alabama--assessed for conduct that could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered egregious--should make trial courts and juries think twice before handing down multi-million-dollar damage awards for such "offenses" as spilled coffee and bad paint jobs.

But the decision represents just one successful battle in a war that has not yet been won. The decision of the court to refrain announcing a "bright line" test to determine...

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