Punitive Damages in Personal Injury and other Tort cases are generally not well understood. If you listen the Big Business and Insurance Industry groups talk about them, you would think that they are awarded all the time, and always in the millions of dollars. In fact, they are awarded in only about three (3) percent of successful tort cases, and the median punitive award is only about $55,000. I think this article gives a decent explanation of what is really going on, by tying the punitive damages issue in to recent tort cases, including the BP oil spill.
Source: ThePopTort