Punitive Damages in Auto Accidents
Auto accidents in East Tennessee are among the most common types of accidents that lead to personal injury lawsuits. Inherent in any lawsuit is the concept of damages, or, how much a party found to be at fault will have to pay. Courts basically award two types of damages in personal injury lawsuits: compensatory damages and punitive damages. Compensatory damages seek to compensate the plaintiff for what they have lost as a result of the accident, such as lost wages, medical expenses, etc. Punitive damages seek to “punish” the defendant, or deter them from engaging in similar conduct in the future.
Whenever you hear of what seems like an enormous amount of damages being awarded by a jury in a lawsuit, it is almost always as a result of a punitive damages award. While compensatory damages generally have set limits, because they can really only be awarded in the amount the victim has actually lost, punitive damages are not restricted in the same manner. Punitive damages can theoretically be awarded at whatever amount the jury feels is necessary to deter the defendant, or similarly situated parties who may someday become defendants, from engaging in such conduct in the future. Thus, it is the concept of punitive damages that is responsible for the common misconception that someone can simply sue another person for a minor indiscretion and “get them for everything they’ve got.”
For punitive damages to be awarded in Tennessee as a result of an auto accident, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant acted intentionally, fraudulently, recklessly, or maliciously in causing the accident. For example, driving under the influence will usually be a pretty good indicator that the plaintiff acted recklessly, while, assuming there is no other evidence offered at trial, passing a field sobriety test will be a good indicator that the defendant did not act in such a manner. Merely causing an accident while driving in a reasonable manner is not sufficient to warrant a punitive damages award, because there is no public policy reason to fine people large sums of money for driving a vehicle in the manner in which it should be driven. Large awards of punitive damages do not occur as frequently as it seems, but they are highly publicized when they do so that it seems like they are commonplace. The reality is that the standard for punitive damages is a tough one to meet and will require that the defendant’s behavior was egregious in causing the accident.
Source: (Fisher v. Johnson, 34 TAM 39-6, 8/24/09, WS, Highers, 8 pages.)
