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Arizona Legal Research - Malpractice punitive damages.

Arizona is in the minority on the following legal malpractice - punitive damages point.

In most states lost punitive damages are not recoverable in a subsequent legal malpractice case. Leading proponents of this view are Illinois, California, and New York. See See Ferguson v. Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, 30 Cal. 4th 1037, 69 P.3d 965 (2003); Summerville v. Lipsig, 270 A.D. 2d 213, 704 N.Y.S.2d 598 (2000); Tri-G, Inc. v. Burke Bosselman & Weaver, 2006 Ill. LEXIS 1090 . The legal theory is sound: punitive damages are awarded to punish the wrongdoer and to deter that party and others from committing similar acts; punitive damages are not awarded as compensation to the plaintiff.

Arizona and some other states are in the minority. See e.g., Haberer v. Rice, 511 N.W.2d 279 (S.D. 1994); Scognamillo v. Olsen, 795 P.2d 1357 (Colo. App. 1990); Elliott v. Videan, 164 Ariz. 113 (1989); and Hunt v. Dresie, 241 Kan. 647 (1987).

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