It depends on the state and the court. Some only allow for actual/measured damages. Some allow for punitive damages. Some let the juries pull numbers out of the

It depends on the state and the court. Some only allow for actual/measured damages. Some allow for punitive damages. Some let the juries pull numbers out of their exhaust ports. In my opinion, whenever cases like this end up in the media, someone is peddling a political opinion. > The plaintiff, Stella Liebeck (1912-2004),[2] a 79-year-old woman, suffered third-degree burns in her pelvic region when she accidentally spilled coffee in her lap after purchasing it from a McDonald's restaurant. She was hospitalized for eight days while undergoing skin grafting, followed by two years of medical treatment. Liebeck sought to settle with McDonald's for $20,000 to cover her medical expenses. When McDonald's refused, Liebeck's attorney filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, accusing McDonald's of gross negligence. > Liebeck's attorneys argued that, at 180–190 °F (82–88 °C), McDonald's coffee was boiling hot and more likely to cause serious injury than coffee served at any other establishment. The jury found that McDonald's was 80 percent responsible for the incident. They awarded Liebeck $200,000[3] in compensatory damages to cover medical expenses, and $2.7 million (equivalent to $5,000,000 in 2021) in punitive damages, the equivalent of two days of McDonald's coffee sales. The trial judge reduced the punitive damages to three times the amount of the compensatory damages, totalling $640,000. The parties settled for a confidential amount before an appeal was decided. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restau... This case was highly publicized and used as a political boogeyman to scare the public into thinking that lawsuits were out of control.