# Erin Andrews is awarded 55 million by jury. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244 "2016-03-08T00:08:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/301 "2016-03-10T15:18:23Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Do we know for a fact that a court cannot impose damages above and beyond those requested in the plaintiff’s claim? For all I know this jurisdiction actually proscribes plaintiffs from requesting punitive damages, leaving it to the sole discretion of the judge and/or jury hearing the case. I don’t know. I’m relying on what others have read in the documents. I know nothing of the particulars of procedure in that jurisdiction. My point is that I, and others, have all along assumed that the award of this magnitude must be punitive. So when someone tells me that there was no punitive claim (and I have no reason to disbelieve them), I was honestly surprised. Don’t get me wrong - I was perfectly willing to argue that punitive damages of this magnitude and under these circumstances would be a bad idea, too. In fact, I did. However, it’s a different - and even more obviously compelling, I would have thought - argument if the jury imposed such a harsh award ostensibly as “compensatory” damages. Though see **CoolHandCox** ’s point above, that a jury member claims they imposed the massive award to “send a message”. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/302 "2016-03-10T15:20:43Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > On doing some Googling, it seems I may be on to something. In some states, plaintiffs are prohibited from requesting punitive damages in their initial claims; they may do so only at later stages of the trial, once certain conditions have been met. For example, [a law firm in Colorado](http://www.coloradopersonalinjuryhelp.com/qanda/) says that “In Colorado, an injury victim cannot request punitive damages until a verdict is reached.” The [California Code of Civil Procedure](http://codes.findlaw.com/ca/code-of-civil-procedure/ccp-sect-425-13.html) says that in health care cases, it is prohibited to make claims for punitive damages until a trial court has ruled on the matter. You may well be right. So far, I’ve not seen any actual breakdown of what was actually awarded for what. Only that the amount claimed was all compensatory. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/303 "2016-03-10T17:33:24Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Maybe it should be, but in our system it often is not. Blame the politicians who made “regulation” a dirty word. Doesn’t matter. The job of the judiciary isn’t to say “hey, look, the legislature is falling down on the job. Time to legislate from the bench” Their job is not to act as back up legislature or executive. Their job is to apply the laws that are already in place. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/304 "2016-03-10T17:39:09Z")
> [@CoolHandCox](#): > > Presumably. Juries are the most unpredictable thing in the Universe, though. They can up compensatory damages to “punish” even when they are not allowed to. Remember, compensatory means now and in the future ($1mil/year damage for 55years of expected life = typical jury calculation; or big past damage + $250k/year for 30 years, ect. ect.). I’m positive a similar model was presented to them at trial by the Plaintiff. Andrews only gets one shot at this, so there’s a lot of speculation towards future damages 20-30 years down the line. Andrews is a dream Plaintiff as far as sympathy goes. Its hard to imagine that compensatory damages could possibly be 55 million dollars for something like this but at least its not punitive damages (which would have made very little sense). I don’t know how you can appeal a jury finding of actual damages unless there is a problem with the jury instructions. This is why damages should not be determined by juries. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/305 "2016-03-10T17:44:59Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Just to point out: nobody watches a video like this because they want to see a video of a nekkid woman. There are approximately ten trillion consensual, non-blurry, high-quality videos of nekkid women on the internet. People watch videos like this because they want to see a video of a naked woman _that was taken without her consent_. > > I’m not talking specifically about anyone on this thread - it’s perfectly possible that there are people who want to decide if the video merits the size of the award, and who lack the basic human understanding to get that watching it is an act of violation, or to give a damn about that. I’m just pointing out that no one has watched that video simply because they wanted to see nudity. I wanted to watch the video because I wanted to see what $55 million dollars worth of video looked like. There is plenty of video out there that is taken without consent (at least when the video is taken), I guess some people are into it (there’s freaks for every kink out there) but after viewing the video, you can’t tell its her. If I showed you the video along with other equally blurry videos of white women with blonde hair blow drying their hair, I doubt you could pick out the one of Erin Andrews. That’s not to say she suffered no harm but 55 million? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/306 "2016-03-10T17:49:02Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > I haven’t read every post in this thread and so I don’t know if anyone has made this point previously. > > But there is another good reason for Erin Andrews to have taken this to court and dealt with all the resulting fallout (and it sure seems like there’s been a lot of nasty and hurtful fallout). > > That reason is that is places a big warning into the minds of people who would try something like this again. It’s bound to discourage people who would do something like this in future and who think it’s just fun and a big joke. > > Many people will have to think twice before doing something similar and for that I think Erin Andrews deserves a big vote of thanks. You don’t think the 2 and a half year jail sentence was enough? Its already illegal to take videos like that. Are you under the impression that the hotel was complicit in taking the video and did it as a funny joke or something? > [@](#): > > I don’t know of any time that EA has displayed any of that pain and suffering in public, but it’s a real good bet that she has suffered plenty in private. So she didn’t suffer on dancing with the stars or on her gig as a sports reporter but in private (and in the witness stand), she suffered unbearable pain and suffering. Yeah, maybe, I guess. > [@](#): > > She is a very courageous person and I would applaud her for taking this action. I’m not criticizing HER for suing. I’m criticizing the judicial hellhole that allows this sort of a verdict in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/307 "2016-03-10T17:52:18Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > Or make you liable to getting sued for discrimination. That’d be the biggest ironic self-fulfilling prophecy this side of Oedipus. Right, because good looking blonde white women are a protected class. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/308 "2016-03-10T17:53:21Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > It is a horrible crime. Of course it is. Just imagine if you were her, how would you feel if one of your children asked you: > > . “Why did people want to take those pictures of you?” > . "Why did you let those people take pictures when you weren’t wearing clothes? > . “Did you cry when you saw them?” > . “Did you get fired when they put those pictures onto the Internet?” > > I’m guessing she cried plenty. Can’t imagine any other reaction. If someone ever did that to someone elses’ wife, daughter or sister, I would completely understand if they took the law into their own hands and shot the guy. It wouldn’t make it right. But it sure would be understandable. > > Don’t you think? Sure, maybe. Would you shoot the hotel owner too? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/309 "2016-03-10T17:54:34Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > How the fuck do you imagine that you, and others similarly unfamiliar with TV sports reporting, hearing about a TV sports reporter, helps her career? Dancing with the stars. ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/310 "2016-03-10T18:38:37Z")
What’s the apportionment (compensatory/punitive)? Few plaintiffs in Vioxx/Celebrex litigation, for example, received more than 20 million dollars, many of them far less, for wrongful death judgments. Comparably, 55 million dollars for Andrews’ injuries seems unbalanced. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/311 "2016-03-10T19:47:10Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > This is not a message to hotels to never fuck up, it is a message to litigants that the tort system is a lottery. On the day this was announced, I was meeting with some senior execs from a competing hotel operation. Over dinner, we discussed. Their response? 1. They ordered a security audit of every property to check on the phone systems. 2. They ordered every property to do a refresh of security protocols at the front desk. 3. They are sending out secret shoppers to test the security at every property. 4. They are seeing an uptick in reservations as people cancel Marriott stays and shift to their brand. Funny - the $55 million was not the key topic. Our conversation on that part revolved around how long the appeals cycle would be, what the real amount would be once negotiated, and whether that would be a sealed agreement or not (as in - would we ever know)\> The women at the table discussed the mental pain of knowing that every person you would ever meet has seen you naked, and how horrible that would be. The men at the table discussed how angry they would be if someone was next to them with bad intentions. I work in a very competitive industry, and we end up in the same hotels for conferences. I sometimes see people who I have fired, who have been hired by another firm in my space. I don’t want them finding their way to my room. Finally - I travel constantly, and have not had a room number read to me in years. In fact - I usually get my keys in a little folder that is closed with the number written inside of it and not even on the cover. The hotel failed in basic security (the house phone), and is now paying for being lax (I think the expensive suits call that negligence). ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/312 "2016-03-10T20:31:06Z")
> [@Mince](#): > > What’s the apportionment (compensatory/punitive)? Few plaintiffs in Vioxx/Celebrex litigation, for example, received more than 20 million dollars, many of them far less, for wrongful death judgments. Comparably, 55 million dollars for Andrews’ injuries seems unbalanced. It’s a good question, to which there is as yet no answer. Apparently, all that was asked for was compensatory. Which, as has been argued, is massively unbalanced. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/313 "2016-03-10T21:03:22Z")
I don’t think this will help or hurt her career. We’ve all stayed in hotel rooms, we’re all naked beneath our clothes. She did nothing to make this happen other than take her clothes off which, last time I checked, we all do every day. (At least I hope so.) Without getting into victim blaming, this isn’t like she took the video herself and it was hacked off her phone, like Scarlet Johannsen. Or “did stuff” and had the tape stolen like Pam Anderson. It is possible to feel appropriate sympathy for Ms. Andrews and to believe the judgement excessive at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/314 "2016-03-10T21:13:03Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Right, because good looking blonde white women are a protected class. It’s also discrimination if you are refusing service for arbitrary reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/315 "2016-03-10T21:54:23Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I, too, assumed an award of this magnitude had to be mostly punitive damages, and argued - extensively - that such a punitive damages regime was a bad idea for various reasons. > > Only problem is that, according to others upthread who have allegedly read the actual claim, the claim _did not include a claim for punitive damages_. The $55 million was, allegedly, all “compensatory”. Thanks. I guess I could buy a punitive award of that size, provided the award did not go to the clmt. But $55 mill for this offense is (IMO) outrageous. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/316 "2016-03-10T22:13:22Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > It’s also discrimination if you are refusing service for arbitrary reasons. It might be discrimination, but is it legally actionable discrimination? When we’re talking about the legal process itself, these distinctions matter. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/317 "2016-03-10T22:13:45Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Thanks. I guess I could buy a punitive award of that size, provided the award did not go to the clmt. But $55 mill for this offense is (IMO) outrageous. …Iran has just been ordered to pay 10.5 Billion dollars to the US because Judge Daniels found that Iran failed to defend itself against claims that it played a role in 9/11. This same Judge, by the way, [ruled that Saudi Arabia had sovereign immunity.](https://www.rt.com/usa/335174-iran-damages-september-911-victims/) If you want to get outraged over something then get outraged over a country being ordered to pay 10.5 Billion dollars for a crime it had absolutely nothing to do with. But we all know and have discussed how 55 million won’t be the final figure here. There really isn’t anything to be outraged about. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/318 "2016-03-11T00:13:43Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > I think too much liability was put onto the hotel. Asking to be put next to someone else is a pretty common occurrence. Anytime a group of people are meeting at a hotel, it’s probably pretty common to want to be near each other. You might ask “Can you put me next to my dad?” or something like that. Handling that at the checkin desk is a convenience that I hope doesn’t go away. Or here’s a really crazy idea: check in with the other guest on whether they even KNOW the person requesting to be put next to them, or if there’s a stalker/angry ex problem. Yeah, I know, giving ANY thought to protecting someone’s privacy and safety is crazy-talk, especially if that person is female and traveling alone, thus more vulnerable. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/319 "2016-03-18T23:56:53Z")
[Hulking Hulkamania!](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35849140) Hulk Hogan awarded $115m in Gawker sex tape case ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244/320 "2016-03-19T00:06:43Z")
I have no desire to see the Andrews tape. My desire to see Hulk Hogan can only be expressed in negative numbers. Twice as much, really? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erin-andrews-is-awarded-55-million-by-jury/748244.md?page=17)