IANAL but punitive damages are meant to punish defendants to force them to reform and deter future misconduct. They're supposed to be outrageously large, otherw

IANAL but punitive damages are meant to punish defendants to force them to reform and deter future misconduct. They're supposed to be outrageously large, otherwise they're toothless. It's kind of the grand bargain in liability law in the US - fewer regulators and regulations but courts can hand down punishing rulings. In a car or gun based wrongful death lawsuit, usually the defendant is the user not the manufacturer so punishing them with a $100 million ruling doesn't do anything - a $1.5 million ruling is already life changing unless they've got bulletproof liability insurance. They usually don't have anywhere near that kind of money and a ruling against them won't prevent future users from shooting or hitting someone with a car, whereas corporations are (ostensibly) able to make proper long term risk calculations.