The Recorder, "Fishing for Punitive Fix in Exxon Case"

       For the third time since an Alaska jury hit Exxon with $5 billion in punitive damages in 1994, the Ninth Circuit panel is facing the question of whether that award is appropriate.
          The class action brought by those who suffered economic damage from the spill has bounced repeatedly between the Ninth Circuit and the Alaska courtroom of Judge H. Russel Holland, a result of Holland's reluctance to significantly lower the award. It's also due to the changing Supreme Court guidelines over how to award punitive damages.
          Most recently, the Supreme Court said in 2003 that punitive damages should not exceed compensatory damages by more than a 9:1 ratio, and that compensatory damages may stand in for punitives as a deterrent in many cases.
          "The Supreme Court began its exploration of punitive damages, and the Exxon Valdez case became a ping pong ball in that process," said Elizabeth Cabraser, a partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein in San Francisco and one of the team of lawyers representing the fishermen in trial.
          "It's really a casualty of that process," she added. "It's been very difficult to wait since 1994."