"Punitive Damages" in California Injury Cases - A Legal Guide (2024)

The purpose of punitive damages is to punish defendants in a personal injury lawsuit and to deter others from committing the same wrongs.

To be awarded punitive damages in California, Civil Code 3294 requires you to demonstrate with clear and convincing evidencethat the defendant engaged in acts of oppression, fraud, or malice.

Three key things to know about punitive damages in California are:

1. You must ask the court for punitive damages, although you may not specify an amount.
2. There is no set formula for determining the amount of punitive damages in California.
3. Most liability insurance policies do not cover punitive damages.

Here at Shouse Law Group, we have helped many accident victims recover massive financial settlements to cover all their losses and more.

To help you better understand how to get punitive damages in a California personal injury case, our California personal injury lawyers will discuss:

• 1. Availability
• 2. Malice, oppression or fraud
• 3. Clear and convincing evidence
• 4. Legal process
• 5. How punitive damages are calculated
• 6. Punitive damages caps
• 7. Wrongful death cases
• 8. How compensatory damages differ
• Additional resources

1. Availability

In our experience, punitive damages are most common in cases where the victim suffered:

• Assault, battery, or sexual assault
• Injury from a DUI-related car crash
• Intentional infliction of emotional distress
• Medical malpractice
• Wrongful termination from a job

Many of our clients assume their case is not serious enough to warrant punitive damages. However, with punitive damages, the extent of your damages does not matter as much as the defendant’s wrongful behavior.

As long as we can show that the defendant acted egregiously, the court has the discretion to award punitive damages far larger than your compensatory damages.

2. Malice, oppression or fraud

California courts may award you punitive damages if the defendant acted with malice, oppression, or fraud. Civil Code 3294(c) defines “malice,” “oppression” and “fraud” as follows:

“Malice” means:

• Conduct that is intended by the defendant to cause injury to you, or
• Despicable conduct carried out by the defendant with a willful and conscious disregard for the rights or safety of others.

“Oppression” means:

• Despicable conduct that subjects you to cruel and unjust hardship in conscious disregard of your rights.

“Fraud” means:

• An intentional misrepresentation, deceit, or concealment of a material fact known to the defendant,
• Made with the intention on the part of the defendant of thereby depriving you of property or legal rights or otherwise causing injury.

California courts have also awarded punitive damages based on a showing that the defendant displayed “willful and wanton negligence.” This means the defendant acted “intentionally with the knowledge that it will probably cause harm.”

Whereas simple negligence requires no evidence that the defendant recognized that their behavior posed a serious threat, willful and wanton negligence requires that the defendant consciously disregard the risks that their actions may cause others.¹

3. Clear and convincing evidence

To recover compensatory damages (also called actual damages) in a California personal injury case, you must usually prove each element of the claim by a preponderance of the evidence. This means you must simply show it is more likely than not that each element of the claim is true.

However, when it comes to punitive damages, you must prove

• malice,
• oppression, or
• fraud

by “clear and convincing evidence.”

This is a higher burden of proof than a “preponderance of the evidence.” It requires you to prove malice, oppression or fraud with a high degree of probability.²

4. Legal process

You must specifically ask for an award of punitive damages (also called exemplary damages). However, you may not specify an amount.³

Punitive damages are sometimes determined in the same proceeding as the defendant’s liability. Or the defendant can request that the issue be “bifurcated” and tried separately.⁴

If the trial is bifurcated, the jury will not hear any evidence of the defendant’s profits or financial condition unless and until:

1. You first win the case, and
2. The jury determines that the defendant is guilty of malice, oppression, or fraud.

Only then will the jury hear evidence of the defendant’s finances and determine what amount of punitive damages to award.⁵ This avoids prejudicing the jury against a “deep pocket” defendant.

5. How punitive damages are calculated

There is no fixed standard for determining the amount of punitive damages in a California personal injury case.⁶

In determining whether to award punitive damages and, if so, how much, the jury will consider:

1. The degree of reprehensibility of the defendant’s conduct;
2. If the defendant’s actions were part of a pattern of behavior;
3. Whether there is a reasonable relationship between the amount of punitive damages and your actual harm or potential harm;
4. Whether the defendant ignored other people’s health and safety;
5. What amount will punish the defendant and discourage future wrongful conduct, taking into account the defendant’s financial condition/net worth; and
6. Whether the defendant tried to exploit your financial situation.⁷

Therefore, we present as much evidence as is available to the jury to show the deplorability of the defendant’s behavior and how it is in the interest of justice for the defendant to have to pay as large a punitive penalty as possible.

Note that judges do not consider whether the defendant is wealthy when determining whether – and how much – punitive damages are appropriate.

6. Punitive damages caps

Unlike some other states, California does not place a cap (or upper limit) on the amount of punitive damages that can be awarded in a personal injury case. That said, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the imposition of “grossly excessive or arbitrary punishments.” ⁸

The United Supreme Court has held that punitive damages must, therefore, be

“reasonable and proportionate to the amount of harm to the plaintiff and to the general damages recovered.”

In our experience, the more reprehensible the behavior, the higher the multiplier can be.⁹

The U.S. Supreme Court has said that “few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, to a significant degree, will satisfy due process.”¹⁰

Example: A jury awards Robert compensatory damages of $100,000 and punitive damages of $5,000,000 in a lawsuit for a serious construction accident. The judge then rules that the amount is excessive because it is equal to fifty times Robert’s compensatory damages. The judge reduces the punitive damages award to $500,000 (a multiplier of five times the compensatory award).

7. Wrongful death cases

Courts usually cannot award punitive damages in wrongful death cases unless the defendant gets convicted of felony murder.¹¹

In survivorship claims, the dead victim’s personal representative may be eligible for punitive damages as long as the victim would have been eligible for punitive damages themself had they not died.¹²

8. How compensatory damages differ

Whereas the purpose of punitive damages is to punish a defendant in a personal injury case, the purpose of compensatory damages is to reimburse you for your losses. Compensatory damages include economic damages, which are losses that can be easily calculated, such as:

• medical bills,
• lost wages,
• lost future earnings, and
• car repair bills.

Compensatory damages also include non-economic damages, which are difficult to calculate losses such as pain and suffering and emotional distress.

Every personal injury case involves a claim for compensatory damages, and you have to prove liability only by a preponderance of the evidence. Just a few cases are eligible for punitive damages, and you have to justify them by the higher standard of clear and convincing evidence.

Additional resources

For more information, refer to the following:

1. Punitive Damages Jury Instructions – Model jury instructions in the Ninth Circuit.
2. A Punitive Damages Overview: Functions, Problems and Reform – Law review article with in-depth explanations.
3. Punitive Damages for Deterrence: When and How Much – Law review article discussing the utility of exemplary damages.
4. Can a dog bite victim in California get “punitive damages”? – Article by our California personal injury attorneys.
5. Does Uninsured Motorist Insurance Cover Punitive Damages? – Article by our California personal injury attorneys.

Legal references: