What evidence suggests some of the criticisms presented in question 7 may be unfounded?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A study by the RAND Institute for Civil Justice indicated that the frequency and magnitude of punitive-damage awards changed little from 1962 to 1987. Furthermore, the General Accounting Office examined data from five states from 1983 to 1985 and concluded that punitive-damage awards were not excessive.?     Studies conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for State Courts in the nation's seventy-five largest counties concluded that punitive damages are awarded in only 3.3 percent of all cases and that judges were more likely than juries to award them. (Judges awarded punitive damages 7.9 percent of the time while juries awarded them 2.5 percent of the time. The median damage awarded by judges was $75,000; the median jury award was $27,000.)     A review of nine empirical studies on punitive damages reveals the following: (1) punitive damages are awarded most frequently in intentional-tort cases and business and contract disputes rather than in personal injury litigation; (2) roughly half of all punitive-damage awards are reversed or reduced in the post-verdict period, with the largest awards having the highest post-verdict mortality rate; (3) the South accounts for more than 50 percent and the Western states for about 20 percent of nonasbestos punitive-damage awards; (4) between 1965 and 1990 Texas led the nation with fifty-one punitive damages verdicts, whereas six states (Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and South Dakota) awarded no punitive damages in any personal injury or product liability case during that same time period; (5) punitive damages peaked in most jurisdictions between 1981 and 1985; (6) juries award punitive damages infrequently (in only about 5 percent of cases), and the amounts are usually modest; and (7) five states account for almost half of all punitive damages awarded in medical malpractice litigation, whereas eleven states did not have a single punitive-damage verdict in a medical malpractice case from 1963 to 1993.