A Law Question About Negligence

I'm doing a substantive law paper on negligence.

I'm having some trouble determining if a person can get punitive damages in a case of negligence.

the wiki page says this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negligence

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Punitive damages - Punitive damages are to punish a defendant, they are NOT to compensate plaintiffs in negligence cases. Therefore, punitive damages are NOT obtainable in a negligence case. Punitive damages are awardable only in cases where a defendant has been found "guilty" of intentional, reckless or malicious wrongdoing, such as fraud, defamation or false imprisonment. The easy way to remember this concept is to think about a car accident where there is physical injury. If the defendant driver was negligent (say by running a red light) then punitive damages cannot be sought. But if the defendant driver was drunk then punitive damages could be awarded.

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BUT, I think we've all heard of a law case where a person took a company to court for negligence and got punitive damages. Like the Pinto case of GRIMSHAW v. FORD MOTOR CO.

BUT I'm not even sure if that case was a pure case of negligence as it is defined as "negligence and strict liability" which I'm not even sure how you combine as negligence cases require "the defendant...to conform to a specific standard of conduct, thereby protecting the plaintiff against an unreasonable risk of injury. This is sometimes referred to as the “reasonable person” standard." and strict liability cases "the duty is not that one is required to act as a reasonable person would have acted under similar circumstances, but instead, Defendant has an absolute duty to make safe that which is the subject of the lawsuit."


Soooo, I don't know. Is the wiki page wrong? Can you get them? Or can you not get them in pure negligence case, but only a strict liability case which is kind of like a negligence case?

I get the feeling that maybe the way normal people use the word negligence is different from its strict law definition, which is throwing off my google results.

Short answer yes with an if, long answer no with a but

1. Go to the local law library.

2. Ask the law librarian for a hornbook on tort law, and a hornbook on damages.

3. Profit.

I don't understand you at all. Every time you are writing a paper it seems you source wiki and TNL. Don't you do any research?

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Originally Posted by Cowutopia

I don't understand you at all. Every time you are writing a paper it seems you source wiki and TNL. Don't you do any research?

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Despite the fact that everyone likes to call IP stupid, he does have an electrical engineering degree and is working on an MBA. Sometimes it's hard to get a start on a paper and you need some guidance to put you in the right direction. In the end, it's really about getting the paper done and if Wikipedia or TNL helps you do it, so be it.

Why not skip the unnecessary step and just fucking do the research?

AND THEN ask TNL lawyers questions?

My last research paper was a real bitch to start. I complained about it on IRC because I thought the writing format was stupid but I was able to get some pointers in that right direction. Once I got there, I still had a lot of research to do but I felt like I was getting somewhere.

Considering the content level on TNL lately we really shouldn't complain about threads like these. It may be for the purpose of helping IP but it could also be used to generate some discussion.

I know what BC has accomplished..I just don't understand how

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Originally Posted by Cowutopia

I know what BC has accomplished..I just don't understand how

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Well...asking questions to put you in the right direction on TNL isn't really that bad of an idea. We have many educated and intelligent people on the boards from all walks of life. And to be honest, starting your research on Wikipedia may not be that bad of an idea because it can point you to some other sources or give you a general idea on what your research topic is about. Obviously IP is doing something right because he finished a very difficult degree.

IP is probably the smartest person on this board, just not in communication skills.