The Impact of Recent Us Supreme Court Punitive Damages
THE IMPACT OF RECENT U.S. SUPREME COURT PUNITIVE DAMAGES JURISPRUDENCE ON OKLAHOMA’S PUNITIVE DAMAGES STATUTE AND JURY INSTRUCTIONS ANDREW C. JAYNE* I. Introduction In State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell,1 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a punitive damages award as “grossly excessive” in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment for only the second time in the Court’s history.2 Since the Court’s decision in Campbell, legal commentators have disagreed about the significance of the opinion,3 and lower courts have struggled to apply Campbell in postverdict reviews of punitive damages awards.4 An even more puzzling question left open after Campbell concerns the degree of guidance a jury must be given before it assesses punitive damages. This question of procedural due process has been * Associate, Atkinson, Haskins, Nellis, Holeman, Brittingham, Gladd & Carwile, Tulsa, Oklahoma. B.A., Westminster College, 1999; J.D., University of Oklahoma, 2002. Articles Editor, Oklahoma Law Review, 2001-2002. 1. 538 U.S. 408 (2003). 2. The U.S. Supreme Court first overturned a punitive damage award under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559 (1996). 3. Compare Mark Bonino, The U.S. Supreme Court and Punitive Damages: On the Road to Reform: After Years of Developing Its Jurisprudence, the Supreme Court in State Farm Signals that the Days of Runaway, Irrational Punitive Damages May Be Ending, 70 DEF. COUNS. J. 432, 432 (2003) (stating that, in Campbell, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled that it intends to limit, if not eliminate, punitive damages), and Michael J.
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