Stephen Todd

A New Zealand Perspective on Exemplary Damages

In a series of recent cases in New Zealand, some fundamental questions about the particular circumstances in which exemplary damages ought to be awarded have arisen. The decisions have tended to allow the award of these damages only in very limited circumstances and lead us to consider whether they ought any longer to be awarded at all. Punishment for conduct which is also criminal should be left to the criminal law and for non-criminal conduct is undesirable in principle. Other civil remedies, in particular an account of profits and aggravated damages, are available in appropriate circumstances.