>The billion-dollar punitive damages verdict, moreover, is not crazy considering that the point of punitive damages is to deter similar conduct in the future I

>The billion-dollar punitive damages verdict, moreover, is not crazy considering that the point of punitive damages is to deter similar conduct in the future I think most would be ok with this reasoning behind punitive damages, as long as lawyers representing victims cannot collect more than, say 1.2 mln $USD (or some large multiple of a minimal wage). Otherwise, the obscene punitive damages are transferred as insurance cost, baked into pharma costs, and covered exclusively by US consumers.