What Are Punitive Damages?

Punitive damages are an amount of money designed to punish the defendant for misconduct that was particularly bad. Most legal malpractice cases do not involve the possibility of punitive damages because the case only involves issues of negligence and not intentional or gross misconduct.   If the lawyer's misconduct involved fraud or theft or other intentional unfair dealing for personal gain, then punitive damages may be available.  Some states have caps on punitive damages and in some states all or part of the punitive damages are payable to the state rather than to the injured person.

Under Florida law punitive damages are currently limited to a maximum of three times the amount of compensatory damages awarded, or $500,000, whichever is greater, except under unusual circumstances.

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