State Farm v. Campbell
Case Date: 05/07/2025
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State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell, 538 U.S. 408 (2003), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that the due process clause usually limits punitive damage awards to less than ten times the size of the compensatory damages awarded.
The Court reached this conclusion applying guideposts first noted in BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U. S. 559 (1996), requiring courts to consider:
(1) The degree of reprehensibility of the defendant's misconduct,
(2) The disparity between the actual or potential harm suffered by the plaintiff and the punitive damages award.
(3) The difference between the punitive damages awarded by the jury and the civil penalties authorized or imposed in comparable cases.
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