**Background**

Say you are awarded $3,000 in compensatory damages, and the judge feels like treble damages would be appropriate for the specific facts of a case.

**Research**

Since the rules I found seemingly governing this do no mention punitive damages at all, I hope something like this was decided on appeals at one point, and there is precedent on this. I only found secondary literature from two websites one probably a law firm stating it is possible.

**Questions:**

1. Is the judge permitted to act in that conscience and award a total of $12,000 ($3K + $9K) while the jurisdictional limit would only permit $10,000 tops? Or will that rule kick in, and the award would be capped at $10,000?

2. Is there any record of punitive damages being awarded in small claims court in California?