Punitive Damages — Punitive damages are sought in order to
punish negligent parties for their actions and to prevent similar actions from happening in the future.
Legal damages are sought in order to obtain payment from a negligent party to cover material losses and to
punish the negligent party for their actions / inaction.
Unlike some other states, Washington does not allow for punitive damages — damages that
punish the negligent party.
These funds are awarded to you but intended to
punish the negligent party.
Punitive damages are those that exceed compensation requirements and are designed to further
punish the negligent party.
Punitive damages are awarded to
punish a negligent party for their actions and to deter them from engaging in the same behavior in the future.
Personal injury lawsuits, on the other hand, include these costs in addition to pain and suffering and additional punitive damages designed to
punish the negligent party for his or her carelessness.
The goal of punitive damages is to
punish the negligent party for their behavior.
Not exact matches
If the
party responsible for an individual's catastrophic injuries engaged in especially egregious conduct, such as drunk driving, violent assault, very dangerous business practices, concealing known dangers from the public, or other grossly
negligent or misleading behavior, the court may even find that the responsible
party owes punitive damages, which are meant to
punish the wrongdoer and deter future bad conduct.
Punitive damages are meant to
punish the guilty
party, as well as to deter others from engaging in the same type of willful,
negligent behaviors.