Scholar targets punitive abuse; Says three reforms could guarantee balance.(News)(law professor David G. Owen)

Business Insurance, September, 2003 by Hofmann, Mark A.

Byline: MARK A. HOFMANN WASHINGTON-Three reforms could help reduce abuse in the awarding of punitive damages, according to a legal scholar who has spent three decades studying the issue. Punitive damages are, "on balance,'' a good thing, David G. Owen, Carolina distinguished professor of law at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, told the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution last week.

But "federal reforms appear to be a desirable path'' to rid the state-based punitive damage system of some of its problems, Mr. Owen said. Another witness questioned, though, whether Congress could interfere with how states deal with punitive damages, while a third witness held that Congress must get involved because some lower courts are...

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