Officer who beat boy gets $1.6m

[LucyR]

I know I'm getting into the habit of just posting links and not contributing anything in the way of original thought but I really thought people here be interested in this:

"A US policeman who was filmed punching a black youth and slamming him against a car has been awarded $1.6m (£890,000) in a race discrimination case."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4190965.stm

[Smike]

Yeah, and what percentage do the lawyers get?

This is ridiculous, but I'm sure cases like this happen all the time. I suppose part of the problem is that the money is supposed to be a punishment for the loser, so if the loser is rich, the winner gets a ridiculously high amount.

[Beerina]

It's only the punative damages that allow juries to make a company's poor decisions more costly than they estimated.

"We (the company) estimate a recall will cost X million, while just letting people continue to die and paying out of court settlements will cost Y million, and Y is significantly less than X. Let's choose Y."

Without punative damages, companies will be able to get away with that analysis.

[Jon_in_london]

Sounds like a fair price for rascism.....