Punitive damages

• Former President Donald Trump has vowed to appeal journalist E. Jean Carroll’s major legal victory over him on Jan. 26, 2024, when a Manhattan jury determined that Trump must pay her US$83.3 million for repeatedly defaming Carroll.
• The jury awarded Carroll US$7.3 million for damage to her reputation, $11 million for emotional harm and $65 million for punitive damages.
• The Conversation U.S. spoke with civil procedure scholar Jayne Ressler to understand what happens now that the jury has announced its award to Carroll.

What exactly does ‘punitive damages’ mean?

• Research has shown that about 5%, or sometimes less, of civil cases wind up having punitive damages rewarded.
• Punitive damages are separate from compensatory damages – meaning, the amount of compensation that Carroll should be rewarded because of direct harm to her.

Does Trump need to pay these damages immediately?

• Defendants don’t say, “Cool, here is a check for whatever amount.” It is a long appeal process that happens with these damages.
• Trump has said he will appeal the decision, and he will likely first argue that the compensatory damages are too high.

How does a jury reach a specific amount when determining punitive damages?

• There is no exact accounting behind the dollar amount of these damages in general.
• The U.S. Supreme Court has not set out an exact ratio to say when punitive damages are too excessive, in accordance with compensatory damages.
• But it has suggested that there should be some correlation between the compensatory damages and the punitive damages.

Assuming that Trump reaches the end of an appeals process and is still ordered to pay this full $83.3 million, how would that be enforced?

• Or the next thing he could do is say he doesn’t have the assets to pay.
• If the court determines he does have the assets and he still does not pay, he would be held in contempt of court.
• With Trump in particular, who is well known for drawing out legal processes, the appeals process could take a long time.

Are there downsides to awarding such a high amount of punitive damages?

For the average person to see something like $83.3 million, it can make you say, “Wow, what kind of court system is this?” No one is saying that Carroll was harmed at an amount that is equivalent to $83.3 million. And the $65 million of punitive damages, in particular, is not about how much Carroll was harmed. It is about punishing Trump’s bad behavior and getting him to stop doing it.
Jayne Ressler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• LONGBOAT KEY, Fla., Nov. 29, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rumble, the video-sharing platform and cloud services provider (NASDAQ: RUM), filed a lawsuit today in federal court in Florida against two co-founders of a purported watchdog organization.
• Rumble is represented by the law firm of Clare Locke LLP, which is among the foremost defamation and First Amendment litigators in the United States.
• The lawsuit alleges that Jammi and Atkin cannot tolerate Rumble’s content-neutral philosophy and want competing points of view to be silenced.
• In the suit, Rumble is seeking actual, presumed, and punitive damages, in addition to all costs and fees associated with the case.

• ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Corp. (NASDAQ: SOLO) (“ElectraMeccanica”), a designer and assembler of electric vehicles, today announced that Tevva Motors Limited (“Tevva”) filed a complaint (the “Complaint”) in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona on November 3, 2023 against ElectraMeccanica, 1432952 B.C.
• As previously announced, on October 4, 2023, ElectraMeccanica notified Tevva of the termination of that certain arrangement agreement (the “Arrangement Agreement”) dated August 14, 2023, by and among ElectraMeccanica, Tevva, Holdco and Parentco, pursuant to which ElectraMeccanica and Tevva were to combine by way of a statutory plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) (the “Arrangement”).
• The Complaint alleges breach of contract, defamation and tortious interference by the defendants, as applicable, in connection with the Arrangement Agreement and the transactions contemplated therein.
• Additionally, the Complaint seeks preliminary and permanent injunctive relief (i) preliminarily prohibiting ElectraMeccanica from completing a merger with any other merger partner pending resolution of the Complaint; (ii) preventing ElectraMeccanica from dissipating its cash reserves through dividend or otherwise; (iii) requiring ElectraMeccanica to complete the Arrangement with Tevva; and (iv) otherwise requiring effectuation of the Arrangement.

• The plaintiffs in the lawsuit have reached a proposed Settlement with the Amneal and Lupin defendants that would resolve all claims against them.
• Separately, the Court has certified several classes of Xyrem and/or Xywav payers and the claims of those classes against the remaining defendants will continue.
• The proposed Settlement and the Court's class certification order may affect the rights of members of the Settlement Class, the Damages Class and the Injunctive Relief Class (all defined below).
• But they give up any rights to sue the Defendants separately about the same legal claims in this lawsuit.