A week ago, the folks at Guideposts observed that February brought “a blizzard of punitive damages awards,” including a $62 million award against Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit alleging that talcum powder caused the plaintiff’s ovarian cancer.
As the calendar has turned to March, the large punitive damages awards of 2016 have continued. Courthouse News reports that a federal judge in Las Vegas has awarded $27 million in punitive damages, on top of $11 million in compensatory damages, in a defamation case. The plaintiff’s lawyer has stated that the $38 million award is one of the largest ever for defamation on the internet.
Closer to home, the Ventura County Star reports that a jury has awarded $3 million in punitive damages and $1 million in compensatory damages in a case involving financial fraud against an elderly plaintiff.
