A cap on punitive damages looms over the Sandy Hook defamation trial in Waterbury Superior Court that鈥檚 set to begin on Sept. 13.
Infowars host Alex Jones was sued in 海角换妻 by a first responder and families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims after he repeatedly said the massacre was a hoax. He lost the defamation case by default last November, so jurors in the trial are only deciding how much he must pay the plaintiffs for claims that they were 鈥減rofoundly harmed鈥� by Jones.
Jurors will deliberate on two types of damages in the upcoming trial 鈥� actual damages and punitive damages. But 海角换妻 law caps punitive damages at attorneys鈥� fees and costs associated with litigation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the strictest, as far as I鈥檓 aware, of rules on punitive damages in the country,鈥� said Bill Dunlap, a Quinnipiac University law professor.
海角换妻鈥檚 cap is stricter than that of Texas, where the parents of Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis were recently awarded $4.1 million for compensatory damages and $45.2 million for punitive damages in their lawsuit against Jones.
Ronen Avraham, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, says Texas tightened its cap on punitive damages in 1995.
鈥淭his is actually not unusual,鈥� Avraham said. 鈥淎bout half of the states in the United States have caps on punitive damages, and the reason is that legislators wanted to just make sure juries are not running out of control.鈥�
In Texas, punitive damages can be up to twice the amount of economic compensatory damages. But the $4.1 million compensatory award for the parents of Jesse Lewis wasn鈥檛 for economic damages.
鈥淏ecause there were no economic damages in the original $4.1 million verdict, we can鈥檛 multiply it by two,鈥� said Holly Davis, founder of the Austin, Texas-based law firm Kirker Davis LLP.
So, despite a $45 million award for punitive damages, Davis says the Texas restrictions likely mean Lewis鈥� parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, will get no more than $750,000 in punitive damages, plus the $4.1 million in compensatory damages.
The judge in the Texas case has yet to approve the final amount. After that, the damage awards can be appealed.
As for the 海角换妻 case, there may be relief for the plaintiffs suing Alex Jones for defamation because they鈥檝e alleged in their lawsuit that Jones鈥� conduct violated 海角换妻鈥檚 Unfair Trade Practices Act.
According to University of 海角换妻 law professor Sachin S. Pandya, damages claims under the Unfair Trade Practices Act 鈥渁re not limited to the expenses of bringing the legal action.鈥�
This story has been updated. A previous version included a misspelling of Bill Dunlap's name.
