Former St. John’s Head Men’s Basketball Coach is Fighting for Punitive Damages

But Who’s Fighting for the Student-Athletes? By Robert J. Romano, JD, LLM, St. John’s University, Senior Writer Punitive damages are awarded in addition to actual or compensatory damages in various legal cases as a form of punishment when the trier of fact is convinced that the defendant’s conduct was egregious or especially harmful. Most often they are awarded in personal injury or product liability cases, but less frequently in breach of a contract matters.[1] This legal tende