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US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones may owe only 10% of the $45.2 million punitive damages awarded by a Texas jury to the parents of Sandy Hook victims last week, legal experts say Monday. A jury returned a verdict of punitive damages on Friday, following a two-week trial in Austin, Texas, home of Jones' Infowars radio show and webcast. , which awarded the parents $4.1 million in compensatory damages on Thursday.
Jones said last year that Sandy, his 6-year-old son Jesse Lewis, died in the 2012 shooting at Hook Elementary School. It turned out that it was. A government conspiracy to stage a massacre.
Juries have wide discretion in awarding, but Texas law does not allow punitive damages when economic loss is not involved, as in this case. He limits the damages to $750,000.
The parents' attorney, Mark Bankston, told Reuters in an email that Jones and his firm each face three claims against him, so the cap could put him at $4.5 million. He said he estimated it would. Bankston said he argued that no cap on damages would apply, but he declined to elaborate.
Maya Guerra Gamble A judge must approve the final amount. This decision will be made shortly.
Jones' attorney, Federico Andino Raynal, said in court on Friday that the $45.2 million punitive damages award did not comply with Texas law and would seek a reduction. He confirmed to Reuters on Monday that he plans to exercise the cap.
According to the New York Times, Raynal said the punitive ruling would reduce him to $1.5 million. He said he expects to be
Some defamation lawyers said they were skeptical that parents could get around the cap.
"They're not going to collect it all. No,” said Texas defamation attorney Chuck Sanders.
According to Sanders, even if the verdict is significantly lower, the initial numbers will continue to be effective in deterring the spread of misinformation.
Even if a parent were able to convince a gambling judge that the cap should not apply, the Texas Supreme Court's precedent found that the ratio of punitive damages to compensatory damages was his 4 to 1. is rarely exceeded. The jury verdict in this case represents an 11 to 1 ratio.
Texas judges cited a 2003 US Supreme Court decision in reaching their decision. The ruling stated that the ratio of punitive and compensatory damages should not exceed single digits in rare cases.
Jones' company, his Free Speech Systems LLC, filed for bankruptcy protection on July 29, suspending his two other Sandy Hook lawsuits against Jones. (Reporting by Jack Queen, Editing by Amy Stevens and Cynthia Osterman)
