Attorneys, litigants, and potential litigants look to these signals to determine whether to settle cases or not. Indeed, the very efficacy of the American market has been weakened by these trends. Certainly, increased litigation and unnecessarily large punitive damage awards have increased the price of doing business. Undoubtedly, these insidious costs have been passed on to consumers and have led to adverse effects on productivity and employment. From coffee spills at McDonald s to medical malpractice, in the words of Morton Kondracke in an article in Roll Call, trial lawyers reap exorbitant profits by trolling for clients and convincing juries to sock it to supposedly deep-pocketed defendants.
Consumers pay the bill as companies pass on their massive insurance premiums through higher prices.
These absurdities demonstrate the need for restraint by the legal profession. They also cry out for legislative reform. There are two other reasons that underlie the need for legislative reform. In this case, the Court held that punitive damages that are grossly excessive in relation to the harm suffered violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court recognized that excessive punitive damages implicate the federal interest in preventing individual states from imposing undue burdens on interstate commerce.