Did you see this news article? A blue fin tuna was purchased at auction in Japan for $104,700 in January of 2009! Now if a dead fish has a real world market value of more then $100,000 what’s a permanent injury to a human being worth? If we want to look at actual values placed on things by society we have no trouble doing that with material things. A dead tuna is worth $100,000 and a painting is worth $100…
The Orsay Museum, located on the Left Bank of Paris, contains a major collection of impressionist painter Claude Monet. On an early Sunday morning October 7, 2007 four or five drunk young people broke into the Orsay Museum through a back door. The group first tried to force open other doors until they succeeded with the back door. It happened during an annual all night festival, The alarm sounded and the intruders ran out, but not before surveillance cameras showed…
David Ball has written excellent books which are available from NITA. In his book on damages, he recommends that the plaintiff motivate the jury to award damages in order to: (1) Fix (2) help and (3) to make up for harm done. He suggests that the jury should use a scale for evaluating the damages which consists of three questions: (1) how bad is the harm (2) How long does it last and (3) How much does it interfere with…