The companies appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, arguing that it would encourage "frivolous suits for the sole purpose" of access to private corporate documents.

The military contractors maintain that large awards encourage unfounded suits and discourage employees from alerting management about wrongdoing.

Fortunately that trend seems to be going away since it encourages frivolous suits, but there are still many that have been handled that way.

The insurance industry argues that our legal system encourages civil suits.

Trial lawyers said the higher limits were still too low, and aircraft manufacturers feared high limits would encourage suits against them.

The contractors say the large awards encourage unfounded suits and discourage employees from alerting management about wrongdoing.

He added that looser legal standards could encourage frivolous suits.

It was "a heavy-handed hint" to lower courts and future litigants that was likely to encourage even more such suits in the future.

They result from state laws that tend to encourage suits against the auto rental agencies.

The surge in litigation is expected to encourage similar suits in other states.