• videocam On-Demand Webinar
  • signal_cellular_alt Intermediate
  • card_travel Class Action & Other Litigation
  • schedule 90 minutes

Defending Punitive Damages Cases and Preventing Runaway Awards: New Approaches

$297.00

This course is $0 with these passes:

CLE
ALL
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About the Course

Introduction

This CLE course will discuss how to give the jury reasons not to award punitive damages even if it ultimately decides the client caused the alleged harm and should compensate the plaintiff. The panel will discuss important pre-trial considerations, legal protections available to the defendant, and crucial decisions to be addressed at trial. The panel will also discuss using Federal Rule of Evidence 407 to counter the plaintiff's perennial "send a message" theme.

Description

Runaway punitive damages awards continue to demonstrate that traditional defense strategies can fail against increasingly sophisticated arguments from the plaintiffs' bar. Getting the claim dismissed on summary judgment or arguing that the plaintiff failed to prove the necessary level of culpability may be tools but often fail as stand-alone strategies.

Radically different approaches are needed. Counsel must develop a comprehensive strategy, including affirmatively telling the defendant's story.

Defendants are finding success in invoking FRE 407 and arguing that subsequent changes have made punitive damages unnecessary. This approach may be instrumental in a variety of tort cases, including trucking and motor carrier cases.

Listen as the panel shares defense strategies for proactively establishing the facts necessary to show that the defendant acted in good faith and to counter arguments by plaintiffs that punishment is needed.

Presented By

Laurie Webb Daniel
Managing Partner
Webb Daniel Friedlander, LLP

Ms. Daniel is a managing partner at the appellate boutique, Webb Daniel Friedlander LLP, based in Atlanta but with a national practice. Previously, she served as Chair of H&K's National Appellate Team. Ms. Daniel handles motions and appeals and provides strategic trial support in federal and state courts nationwide (including the U.S. Supreme Court) in various types of cases ranging from complex litigation, intellectual property, antitrust and unfair competition, securities fraud, corporate opportunity, breach of fiduciary duty, CERCLA, to torts involving personal injury (product liability, premises liability, wrongful death) fraud, and defamation. Ms. Daniel is a generalist with an appellate specialty. Her forte is combining appellate skills with substantive expertise to position high stakes cases for a successful outcome, often working with trial counsel from other firms to do so. Ms. Daniel has served as a commentator for CNN and many CLE programs, and she was named Lawyer of the Year for Appellate Law (Georgia/2017) by Best Lawyers in America.

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Kathryn Lehman
Partner
King & Spalding LLP

Ms. Lehman is a trial lawyer in King & Spalding’s Atlanta office. She is a member of the Tort Litigation and Environmental Group. Ms. Lehman focuses her practice on high-risk cases involving punitive damages. She has defended clients in the consumer products, medical device, professional services, food service and transportation industries.

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Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.


  • Live Online


    On Demand

Date + Time

  • event

    Tuesday, July 18, 2023

  • schedule

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  1. Finding and telling the defendant's story
    1. Focusing on the "why" of the defendant's actions
    2. Countering plaintiff's likely strategies and themes
  2. Deciding whether to bifurcate
  3. Strategic use of pretrial motions and objections
  4. Building the defense with jury selection, jury instructions, and anchoring
  5. Using appellate and punitive damages experts
  6. Introducing subsequent remedial measures under FRE 407

The panel will review these and other issues:

  • Why do motions to dismiss or for summary judgment usually fail?
  • How can defense counsel give the jury a reason not to award punitive damages?
  • Why must defense counsel, when punitive damages are alleged, think like a plaintiff's lawyer?
  • How can anchoring be used effectively?
  • How can counsel use FRE 407 to show that punitive damages are unnecessary?