How much can be awarded for wrongful arrest in a civil lawsuit against the police?

There is usually no limit to the amount a court or jury can award the plaintiff in a civil lawsuit against the police, although some states do have award caps on civil liability lawsuits. Juries have been known to award very large amounts to plaintiffs, only to have the judge in the case reduce the award to what he believes is a more just figure. There are four categories of awards:

1. Actual damages: those that can be measured precisely, such as medical costs, list wages, property replacement or repair costs, etc.
2. Compensatory damages: for injuries that are not precisely quantifiable, such as pain and suffering, emotional trauma, loss of consortium, etc.
3. Punitive damages: money paid purely to punish the defendant and discourage them and others from similar conduct in the future. In lawsuits against the police, the police department usually pays any actual and compensatory damages, but punitive damages are assessed against the officer(s) personally.
4. Costs: attorney's fees, investigative costs, and other costs incurred in prosecuting the lawsuit. These costs often outweigh all of the other award amounts combined.

Juries are sometimes not so fast to award large damage amounts when police (as opposed to private businesses or individuals) are the defendants, as the costs of paying those damages comes out of tax dollars. The taxpayer is ultimately the loser in the lawsuit.