more rollback of ADA

JBrown72073 at cs.com JBrown72073 at cs.com
Mon Jun 17 15:30:03 PDT 2002


In a message dated 6/17/02 6:04:04 PM, owner-lbo-talk-digest at lists.panix.com writes:


>Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 16:51:29 -0400
>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>Subject: Re: more rollback of ADA


>>Government agencies can be forced to pay actual damages but not punitive
>>damages for violating a landmark disabilities law, the court ruled.


>Why is punitive damages paid by government agencies a good thing? It is
>invariably a transfer of public tax monies to private pockets. Very much
>different from punitive damages paid by private parties, which usually
>have a re-distributive aspect.
>
>wojtek
>
Who was it that said of the U.S. south that instead of government regulation we have civil litigation? I suppose the general thought is that punitive damages would make some bureaucrat sweat their budget and change their policy. In the case of the $4.4 mil the FBI and Oakland police are paying out to Judi Bari's estate & Daryl Cherney, the benefit was mostly from what was revealed in discovery, since the FBI's general mission is unlikely to change due to these unanticipated costs. Still, nice to know you can sue the FBI and win, since everyone says you can't.

Jenny Brown Co-chair, Alachua County Labor Party Gainesville, Florida



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