Punitive damages are monetary damages awarded in addition to compensation for actual losses. Its purpose is to punish people who have engaged in especially egregious, reckless or intentional misconduct. Punitive damages are awarded in addition to any compensation for economic and non-economic damages. Punitive damages are awarded when the court wants to punish the responsible party for their scandalous conduct as determined by a Personal Injury Attorney in St. Stephen SC.
Stephen SC.Stephen SC.Stephen SC.Stephen SC.Stephen SC.Stephen SC.Punitive damages, sometimes referred to as exemplary damages, are additional payments that the defendant may be ordered to pay in addition to compensatory damages in certain personal injury cases. Unlike compensatory damages, which are intended to cover the victim's actual losses, punitive damages are intended to penalize the defendant for particularly reckless, malicious, or atrocious behavior. Mason P disagreed and took the view that there was no reason of principle to award punitive compensation with respect to common law torts, but that there was no reason of principle to award compensation for similar equitable damages. For more information on punitive damages, see this note from the Yale Law Journal and this note from the University of Minnesota Law Review. Unlike compensatory damages, punitive damages are intended to punish the defendant for atrocious behavior, to deter similar conduct in the future, and to hold defendants to account for dangerous actions.
While punitive damages are rare, it's worth discussing the possibility of this type of compensation with your attorney. In 1997, the Law Commission recommended that punitive compensation should never be awarded for breach of contract. As long as your lawyer can demonstrate with clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with total disregard for your safety or health, you can be awarded punitive compensation. In serious personal injury cases, punitive damages, or even the possibility of compensation for punitive damages, can be the key to achieving justice.
Compensatory damages for physical injuries are excluded from taxable income, but punitive damages are considered taxable income in most cases. For example, punitive damages awarded to one of the parties in a U.S. case would be difficult to recognize in a European court where punitive damages are more likely to be found to infringe public order. As this is a somewhat new law so far, no other explanatory regulation has been enacted regarding the detailed amount and applicable scope that guides the application of this rule, so a judicial judge may have discretionary powers to decide punitive damages on a case-by-case basis under this new law. Punitive damages are also intended to deter similar behavior in the future by making clear that there are serious financial consequences for gross negligence or intentional harm.
However, in the case of punitive damages, the plaintiff must meet the highest standard of showing clear and convincing evidence that the defendant's conduct was intentionally harmful or so extremely reckless that the punishment is justified. These limits are designed to balance the need to award punitive damages with the overall objective of justice. In many states, including California and Texas, punitive damages are determined based on the law; in other places, they can be determined solely based on of the case law.