quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
100% Federal excise tax on all punitive damages, awards over actual damages incurred, and settlement proceeds over actual economic losses, and much if not all of the nonsense would go away.

If someone suffers damages or injury from another's actions, they should be able to be made whole - no argument here. Compensation over and above that is what is fueling the greed - plaintiffs' greed as well as that of the ambulance-chasers.

"Professional victim" should not be a career path or desired end-game.

Do you have idea how rare punitive damages awards actually are and how reluctant juries are to award them? I have questioned potential jurors who independently say things like "I would never award punitive damages" in cases where punitive damages aren't even an issue and haven't been raised by the lawyers.

Further, the kinds of cases in which punitives are even theoretically available are not common, and what you have to prove to get them are considerable barriers. And then, there are limits on the dollar amounts if you even get that far. Appellate courts tend to police awards of punitives harshly.

I don't do that kind of legal work, but punitive damages are not often readily available. This is a problem that is greater in theory than in reality. The insurance industry did a great job (and make no mistake, it was the insurance business and the AMA) in convincing people that punitives were a big problem 30 years ago. They did it to protect their interests - not yours.

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But the 1st Amendment absolutely is in play here

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Lawyers can have all the ads they want other than television. Why cant hookers and blow have ads on Tv? I might enjoy those.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Do you have idea how rare punitive damages awards actually are

Yep.

Same as huge lottery payouts, it's the magnitude and the disproportionality of cost to payout that makes them aspirational, not the frequency.

What would William Shatner be doing without daytime lawyer ads for nationwide referral attorneys? I remember the online university and ITT Tech type places used to have ads all day, that became less lucrative once the student loan fountain dried up so it died down to palatable amounts. I'm a lawyer, but most of the ads you are seeing are ones where some firm will review your case and then refer it on to some other local attorney they have a relationship with and will "assist" on the case for a fee split, all disclosed and consented to by the client pursuant to a fee agreement. I agree they are played too often, over and over again, the same ads every commercial break, but it pays the TV channels bills and I guess the TV station doesn't care about it.

Amazingly, many people take whatever offer insurance companies give for "pain and suffering" after their car is totaled by a drunk driver without realizing their health insurance subrogation department isn't going to be happy they just signed a settlement for $2,000 when they have $50,000 in bills. Somehow the insurance companies are always the victims though. I live in Iowa, yet I subsidize hurricane losses for millionaires to have beachfront property in Florida. Their premiums pay for our flooding. I park my car in the garage but my insurance premiums pay for my neighbor's car that gets totaled by hail when they left it outside. I don't drink and drive, but my premiums pay for drunk drivers' liability claims. With the amount of time a malpractice or mega products liability case involves, it is increasingly rare to be able to find an attorney to take those cases. The risk is too high to put in that much time and hour and get a big $0, which happens all to often.