Punitive Damages
Categories: Regulations
You lost the lawsuit. Yes, you were dumping (um, bad chemicals into the river...not the other thing). The cleanup cost $2 million. But when you lost the lawsuit, you ended up owing $8 million. That was $2 million for the cleanup plus triple damages as punitive measures, punishing you, and as a warning to other chemical dumpers creating 3-headed frogs down river.
Punitive damages send a message in an industry or a given bad practice saying, "Um, you do this and really bad things will happen to you." Kinda like, "You want me to pull this car over? I'll do it right now if I have to..."
