Class Action Lawsuits and Lawyers

In that view, such awards are inequitable as well as inefficient. Indeed, the Supreme Court has ruled that punitive damages violate the Due Process Clause of the Constitution if they are not "both reasonable and proportionate to the amount of harm to the plaintiff and to the general damages recovered."(13) The accuracy of that characterization of nonpecuniary damages is a matter of some debate. Supporters of the status quo argue that large awards for punitive damages can promote efficiency by sending appropriate signals for precaution in regard to torts that have a significant probability of escaping detection and judgment.
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Class Action Lawsuits and Lawyers

In this option, victims would receive compensation from a government fund according to a fixed schedule based on the type of injury they had and other relevant factors.(3) To finance the fund, businesses would pay "experience-rated" premiums that reflected the previous record of injuries associated with their products. (Companies would ultimately pass on the costs of those premiums to their customers, workers, or investors in the form of higher prices, reduced wages, or lower returns on capital, respectively.) Depending on the details of the proposal, nonprofit organizations and state and local governments might also participate.
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