Brooklyn Law School professor Anita Bernstein has written ‘Treble Damages in New York: A Field Guide’ for the New York Law Journal. Professor Bernstein explains how New York’s fee shifting, punitive damages, and treble damages will allow plaintiffs to collect more than just compensatory damages.
An excerpt:
Depending how you count, there are approximately 62 statutory provisions for treble damages in New York law. I say "approximately" and "depending how you count" because of quirks in the codes. For example, the right of rentstabilized tenants to recover three times their damages when they are overcharged is codified repetitively: in the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, see MCKINNEY'S UNCONSOL. LAWS §8630a (enacted 1974), the Rent Stabilization Code §2526.1 (enacted 2004), and the New York City Rent Stabilization Act, see N.Y.C. Administrative Code §265111 (enacted 2015). Different treble damages statutes govern different harms to trees. See N.Y. ENVTL. CONSERV. LAW §§90303, 91501 (McKinney 2004).
Read the full New York Law Journal article [subscription required].