Justice, But That's a Lotta Money..

That's because it's seldom reported clearly. The money is divided into two parts - first, the "actual damages", which are supposed to directly compensate the plaintiff for their loss, and second, the "punitive damages", which are supposed to deter the defendant from offending again.

In a case like the tobacco companies face all the time - wrongful death due to use of their products - the actual damages end up being something on the order of what the victim would have earned through the rest of his life, had he survived. Even if he made $100k/year, that'd typically only be in the neighborhood of $2M - Phillip Morris makes 6,000 times that in profit every year, so they could easily treat even a hundred of those cases a year as just the cost of doing business.

So, instead, enough gets added in punitive damages so they'll stop. A few years ago, there was a case where the jury awarded $28 billion in damages to a smoker, but the judge overruled them and reduced it to $28 million. And tobacco sales continue.

The punitive damages end up going to the plaintiff, which seems a little odd - but it's hard to think where else they'd go. The only other logical place is for the government to keep them, but that might be a little too tempting to politicians as way to fill the coffers instead of raising taxes.