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Saturday, June 05, 2004

Law - More on California Governor Schwarzenegger's Punitive Damages Proposal

Catherine Sharkey, an Associate Professor at Columbia Law School, has written a commentary for FindLaw.com on Governor Schwarzenegger's proposal that "that 75% of all punitive damages awards entered in California be paid to a Public Benefit Trust Fund, with each deposit to 'be used for public good purposes that are consistent with the nature of the award.'" Sharkey argues that:

Governor Schwarzenegger should, at a minimum, be commended for creating the opportunity to consider an intriguing tort reform measure that has, to date, too often been ignored. Split-recovery schemes aren't perfect, but neither is our current punitive damages system.
The Indiana Law Blog has posted a number of entries on the punitive damages issue, of special interest to Indiana attorneys because Indiana's law limits the plaintiff to 25% of punitive damages, and the attorney's share, as confirmed by our Indiana Supreme Court, comes out of the 25%. For our most recent (May 29th) entry, with links to earlier entries and the statute and case law, check here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 5, 2004 07:43 AM
Posted to General Law Related