$115 million verdict in Hulk Hogan sex-tape lawsuit could wipe out Gawker

[Baruch]

There was a trial years ago, where a Texas jury found over $1 billion damage against Texaco (an oil company), that basically put them out of business.

While I approve of private lawsuits (this being better than assassination teams) ... I am surprised nobody commented on whether the jury award amount is excessive or not.

[SGOS]

I am surprised nobody commented on whether the jury award amount is excessive or not.

After that woman sued McDonalds when she spilled coffee on herself, my attitude toward excessive jury awards is not to expect a jury award to make sense.  Often times, the judge has some power to reset the amount of the award.  Not that I have a better solution to this situation, which I care little about to begin with.  Should I care?

[Baruch]

After that woman sued McDonalds when she spilled coffee on herself, my attitude toward excessive jury awards is not to expect a jury award to make sense.  Often times, the judge has some power to reset the amount of the award.  Not that I have a better solution to this situation, which I care little about to begin with.  Should I care?

Conservatives of course, would ban all private lawsuits, particularly class action lawsuits.  They despise common people, especially on juries.  They much prefer pre-biased jurists who went to the same Ivy League school as they did.  On the other hand, there is general unfairness in the amount of award ... maybe we should just declare corporate execution for corporate persons (the SCOTUS fiction)?  That way we would have uniformity for malfeasance, even if Draconian.  Then again, today we don't bother to prosecute malfeasant business executives, we fine their company, the government gets the award rather than the damaged party, and the corporation takes the fine off of their income taxes (if they bother to pay any).