Let the Damages Fit the Wrong: An Immodest Proposal for Reforming Personal Injury Damages

Rather than comment on the wisdom of piecemeal reform, this article questions the premise of compensatory damages and takes the position that make-whole recovery is an unnecessary consequence of liability and does not necessarily achieve just results...I propose that civil damages should fit the wrong.6 Compensatory damages should abandon the make-whole premise and be measured by three factors: the degree of the wrongfulness of the tort, the severity of the harm, and the extent to which the risky conduct was directed at the plaintiff—which I call connectedness.