Punitive Damages Promotes Justice while Tort Reform Hurts Society Research Paper

Punitive Damages Promotes Justice while Tort Reform Hurts Society - Research Paper Example Exemplary or Punitive damages are financial damages given to a claimant in a personal civil action and evaluated against a defendant established to be responsible for deliberately infringing the rights of the plaintiff. However, many people confuse punitive damages with compensatory damages. The major difference is that the awarding of punitive damages can only occur after a judge has established that a defendant is accountable for a claimant’s injuries and has set a suitable compensatory award. Moreover, punitive damages are given to a claimant, and are evaluated against a defendant, not counting and excluding compensatory damages. In addition, the awarding of punitive damages can only be successful in occasions where the injury inflicted to the claimant was the anticipated and likely effect of the defendant’s actions.† Moreover, the awarding of punitive damages only occurs in cases where the actions of the defendant are of an adequately egregious nature. Another aspect of punitive damages is that in theory, many people view them as an amazing solution. The major aim of awarding punitive damages is prevent defendants and others from practicing similar behavior. However, large companies constantly pressurize policymakers to put a cap or restrict on punitive damage awards. This is because they deem that punitive damages incur heavy costs. Conversely, imposing limitations on punitive damages would reduce their effectiveness and deem their purpose insignificant. (Sayas, 2011). In addition, punitive damages are a community solution for a community wrong. In this regard, punitive damages are state-inflicted charges for disruptive behavior, safeguarding the public inflicting charges on producers for their deliberate, blatant unconcern to human safety (Pace, 1997). Moreover, punitive damages have a monetary effect that not only obtains the notice of the defendant for perverse behavior, but also to cause the whole business to concentrate on the harm caused and take remedial action (Boulton, 2004). Although there is an extensive reporting of cases relating to multi-million dollar punitive damage awards, the truth is that judges are not hurriedly awarding these damages. This implies that there is no extensive awarding of punitive damages though they are significant in the society. According to a research by an Institute for Civil Justice, punitive damages occur in below 4 percent of all judges decisions. The major reason for this is that there is no awarding of punitive damages except that the claimant clearly illustrates that the defendant meant to harm the claimant, or knew that claimant was likely to experience harm, but intentionally ignored that risk (Sayas, 2011). There are numerous forms of torts, but regarding tort reform, the two major areas of concentration are medical malpractice and products liability. Medical malpractice is a law section that holds medical experts responsible for damage caused by their behavior after they do not conform to sensible principles. On the other hand, products liability is the sec tion of law that normally holds firms accountable for releasing unreasonably risky products on the market (Boulton, 2004). In the 1980s, the tort reform movement started to build up a more lasting institutionalized method to advocate for reform. Not amazingly, there have been extensive arguments concerning the objectives