Texting and Driving May Soon Cost You

Punitive damages are widely used in civil litigation to deter reprehensible conduct, yet historically juries have been frozen out of the chance to punish texters who cause motor vehicle accidents.

The lack of punitive awards against drivers who text and crash can largely be explained by older state laws that required a high level of recklessness and insurers’ desire to settle such claims quickly, attorneys who practice in the area told Bloomberg Law.

But a flurry of new state laws that more clearly target driver texting may finally push a significant number of punitive damages claims in front of judges ...