Punitive Damages
Preliminary Empirical Findings
ResearchPublished 1985
This Note presents preliminary information on punitive damages awarded between 1959 and 1984 by juries in Cook County, Illinois, and San Francisco County, California. Findings confirm widespread perceptions that punitive awards have become both more frequent and larger, although only 45 percent of large punitive awards were actually paid by defendants. Punitive awards occur most frequently in trials involving intentional tort claims (assault, discrimination, and defamation), but trends have been stable for those cases. Punitive awards are less frequent for business torts or breach-of-contract claims, but the number and size of such awards have grown steadily, increasing greatly in the 1980s. Punitive awards were rare for personal injury cases based on negligence or strict liability but increased greatly in the 1980s in Cook County. Most punitive awards were against individual defendants, but businesses were assessed far larger awards.
Topics
Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Available
- Year: 1985
- Print Format: Paperback
- Paperback Pages: 54
- Paperback Price: $23.00
- Document Number: N-2342-ICJ
Citation
RAND Style Manual
Chicago Manual of Style
Peterson, Mark A., Punitive Damages: Preliminary Empirical Findings, RAND Corporation, N-2342-ICJ, 1985. As of October 12, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/notes/N2342.html
Peterson, Mark A., Punitive Damages: Preliminary Empirical Findings. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1985. https://www.rand.org/pubs/notes/N2342.html. Also available in print form.
This publication is part of the RAND note series. The note was a product of RAND from 1979 to 1993 that reported miscellaneous outputs of sponsored research for general distribution.
This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.