How have courts dealt with the issue of improper closing arguments in a civil case?

Our decision in Miller v. City of Los Angeles, 661 F.3d 1024 (9th Cir.2011), illustrates the deficiency. In that case, the district court found that defense counsel violated an in limine order by suggesting during closing arguments that the decedent was armed when the defendant police officer shot him. Id. at 1026. The trial ended in a hung jury. The district court awarded the plaintiffs all fees incurred during the trial as a compensatory sanction, presumably on the theory that defense counsel's improper closing argument caused the jury to hang, thus necessitating a retrial and rendering all of the fees incurred during the first trial a waste. We concluded that the award could not be deemed compensatory. Id. at 1030. The record did not establish a causal connection between the lawyer's misconduct and the jury's inability to reach a verdict. It was simply impossible to know, on the record compiled in that case, why the jury could not reach a verdict, and the limited evidence available suggested that it was not because of defense counsel's improper remarks. Id.