I'm not sure it's exactly a legal exploit. As I understand it, part of the purpose of this sort of suit is to prevent the person being sued from continuing to d

I'm not sure it's exactly a legal exploit. As I understand it, part of the purpose of this sort of suit is to prevent the person being sued from continuing to defame the victims. Therefore, the penalty is set at what is likely to accomplish that. However, in this case, the only penalty likely to stop Jones is one large enough to put him out of business.