How that $3 Million Judgment was Winnowed Down But didn she get rich off this lawsuit?
Not really. Everyone heard about the $3 million verdict, but far fewer people understood how the jury reached this verdict or what happened afterwards. • Start with a $3 million judgment. The jury based its $3 million judgment on how much Liebeck had suffered and to send McDonald’s a message. The jury awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages (reduced by 20 percent to $160,000 because of her own fault in the incident) and also awarded her $2.7 million in punitive damages. • Compensatory damages are intended to return the plaintiff to where she was before she was injured. Compensatory damages can, as they were in this case, be reduced by a percentage based on the plaintiff’s own fault (her “contributory negligence”) in the accident. Some states bar any recovery if the plaintiff is 50% at fault or greater. • Punitive damages are intended to reprimand defendants for their harms they inflict, to “send a message” that their behavior was particularly reprehensible and should not be co
