Quote:
Originally Posted by mjfletcher
The judge/jury "finds for" the plaintiff or defendant. Basically they just say "I/We believe what this person says more than what the other one says."
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Another way of saying it is by the preponderance of the evidence. The judge and jury have a lot of leeway in deciding the veracity of stories and any evidence.
Normally, only liability is decided after deciding negligence or if due diligence was not followed. Then amounts can be awarded for damages, court costs and punitive (monetary) damages.
Some punitive damages are like pain and suffering etc. or if the defendent is an unremorseful ignoramus etc.
Also, high awards can come about because a corporation does not 'feel' a 10k judgement times a couple of people per year as say, a couple of 5million dollar awards. If they only payout 1k for a broken arm and only 5 customers a year break their arms on their floors, no big deal. They won't change their procedures to add signage etc. until and unless the damages would be a greater cost than buying signage etc.
IANAL and the laws and limits etc. vary state to state just like small claims court. But this is the basic rundown in general. (I should state that it can turn on legal matters of criminal behavior, too, but the result is not punishment for a crime freedom-wise, but restitution etc.)