Are Punitive Damages Covered by your Personal or Business Insurance?
The short answer to this question is no. Twenty-six (26) states specifically exclude the insurability of punitive damages. Additionally, all fifty (50) states and virtually ALL insurance policies exclude the insurability of intentional acts.
How Can an Innocent Partner Be Protected from a Punitive Damage Award?
The Innocent Partner Protection Policy provides protection for the innocent spouse or business partner who sustains a financial loss as a result of shared assets that are lost due to a punitive damage award against their partner. We do not (and cannot) provide protection or relief for the loss of the wrongdoer. However, because the assets used to pay that award most often come from shared assets, which are equally owned by all partners, we can provide financial protection to those assets that belong to the innocent partner(s).
How Are Punitive Damages Awarded?
The judge is allowed to select the assets used in the payment of the punitive damage award. Often, the assets used are joint assets held in conjunction with others. That means that an innocent partner (or joint asset holder) is unfairly penalized because they did nothing wrong. Their assets, however, are used to pay for the misdeeds of the wrong-doer.
Who Is an Innocent Partner?
If you own any assets with others, you have an exposure to financial loss. While you have control over your behavior, you cannot control the behavior of your partners. Yet the assets you jointly own with your partners are exposed to loss from a punitive damage. Our policy considers an innocent partner to include:
1. Spouse, including civil union or domestic partner recognized by law; or
2. Parent, brother, sister, son or daughter or other adult relative living in the same household who co-owns “joint assets” with a “partner”, or;
3. Individual associated with a “partner” through a business or family relationship which involves the comingling or co-ownership of “joint assets”.
How Can You Obtain the Innocent Partner Protection Policy?
This unique and patented approach to affording protection against these types of awards is available to you as a member of _____
.
The short answer to this question is no. Twenty-six (26) states specifically exclude the insurability of punitive damages. Additionally, all fifty (50) states and virtually ALL insurance policies exclude the insurability of intentional acts.
How Can an Innocent Partner Be Protected from a Punitive Damage Award?
The Innocent Partner Protection Policy provides protection for the innocent spouse or business partner who sustains a financial loss as a result of shared assets that are lost due to a punitive damage award against their partner. We do not (and cannot) provide protection or relief for the loss of the wrongdoer. However, because the assets used to pay that award most often come from shared assets, which are equally owned by all partners, we can provide financial protection to those assets that belong to the innocent partner(s).
How Are Punitive Damages Awarded?
The judge is allowed to select the assets used in the payment of the punitive damage award. Often, the assets used are joint assets held in conjunction with others. That means that an innocent partner (or joint asset holder) is unfairly penalized because they did nothing wrong. Their assets, however, are used to pay for the misdeeds of the wrong-doer.
Who Is an Innocent Partner?
If you own any assets with others, you have an exposure to financial loss. While you have control over your behavior, you cannot control the behavior of your partners. Yet the assets you jointly own with your partners are exposed to loss from a punitive damage. Our policy considers an innocent partner to include:
1. Spouse, including civil union or domestic partner recognized by law; or
2. Parent, brother, sister, son or daughter or other adult relative living in the same household who co-owns “joint assets” with a “partner”, or;
3. Individual associated with a “partner” through a business or family relationship which involves the comingling or co-ownership of “joint assets”.
How Can You Obtain the Innocent Partner Protection Policy?
This unique and patented approach to affording protection against these types of awards is available to you as a member of _____
.
What are Punitive Damages?
Damages awarded in civil trial litigation can take the form of compensatory or punitive awards. Punitive damages are not awarded for the purpose of compensating injured plaintiffs, but are almost exclusively reserved for civil claims in which the defendant’s conduct was considered grossly negligent or intentional. Punitive damages are intended to serve as a means for punishing the defendant and deterring others from committing similar actions. As a consequence of this intent, the innocent partner is also penalized through the loss of their assets in the payment of the award. It is ultimately the innocent partner who is unfairly penalized because they did nothing wrong.
Damages awarded in civil trial litigation can take the form of compensatory or punitive awards. Punitive damages are not awarded for the purpose of compensating injured plaintiffs, but are almost exclusively reserved for civil claims in which the defendant’s conduct was considered grossly negligent or intentional. Punitive damages are intended to serve as a means for punishing the defendant and deterring others from committing similar actions. As a consequence of this intent, the innocent partner is also penalized through the loss of their assets in the payment of the award. It is ultimately the innocent partner who is unfairly penalized because they did nothing wrong.
How Often are Punitive Damages Awarded?
Professionals, teens, hourly wage earners, and parents are sued all the time. Because of this exposure and the hard-earned assets that people have acquired, their exposure to Punitive Damages is compounded
In our litigious society, punitive damages were sought in 12% of the estimated 25,000 tort and contract trials concluded in the state courts in 2005 according to the Department of Justice report on Punitive Damage Awards, written in 2011. Other highlights of their report include:
•Punitive damages were sought in 10% of all tort trials. However, for certain case types including slander or libel, conversion and intentional tort cases, punitive damages were requested in approximately 30% of the trials.
•Plaintiffs received punitive damages in 30% of the civil trials in which these damages were requested and the plaintiff prevailed.
•The median punitive damage award was $64,000 and 13% of cases with punitive awards had damages of $1,000,000 or more.
•In 76% of the civil trials with both punitive and compensatory damages, the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages was approximately 3 to 1.
Professionals, teens, hourly wage earners, and parents are sued all the time. Because of this exposure and the hard-earned assets that people have acquired, their exposure to Punitive Damages is compounded
In our litigious society, punitive damages were sought in 12% of the estimated 25,000 tort and contract trials concluded in the state courts in 2005 according to the Department of Justice report on Punitive Damage Awards, written in 2011. Other highlights of their report include:
•Punitive damages were sought in 10% of all tort trials. However, for certain case types including slander or libel, conversion and intentional tort cases, punitive damages were requested in approximately 30% of the trials.
•Plaintiffs received punitive damages in 30% of the civil trials in which these damages were requested and the plaintiff prevailed.
•The median punitive damage award was $64,000 and 13% of cases with punitive awards had damages of $1,000,000 or more.
•In 76% of the civil trials with both punitive and compensatory damages, the ratio of punitive to compensatory damages was approximately 3 to 1.
