Martin Hoke: “we have heard repeatedly over the past several days of debate that there have been only 350 cases in all of American…”

“we have heard repeatedly over the past several days of debate that there have been only 350 cases in all of American history that have resulted in the assessment of punitive damages and we have just heard that in fact this movement to try to put some sort of cap on punitive damages is being brought by special interests. But what we are not hearing about from the other side is the biggest special interest of all in the U.S. Congress, and that is the special interest of the trial lawyers. Two million dollars was spent by the trial lawyers in the 1993-94 cycle supporting Democratic candidates. Let us look at the truth about this outrageous claim there have only been 350 cases in all of American history resulting in the assessment of punitive damages. That is complete hogwash and they know it is hogwash. They know there is no central list of punitive damages nationwide and they can pay for studies that will say whatever the lawyers want to say. The case the trial lawyers mentioned represents a fraction of the type of cases in which punitive damages have been recovered. In just the last 4 years in the State of California alone there have been 253 jury verdicts in punitive damages cases to the tune of $1.6 billion, and in the past 2 years in four other States there have been 158 punitive damages alone. That is all punitive damage awards in just five States since 1990.”