What is the range of damages available to defendants in a civil action brought by a plaintiff who was arrested once a month for public intoxication?

We must first disagree with defendants' conception of the size of the class benefitted. The reforms won by this litigation-- most notably the mandatory medical screening of arrestees, the limitation on the number of inmates that may be kept in one cell, the requirement that arrestees be properly advised of their rights to counsel, jury trial, and confrontation of witnesses and their right to a probable cause hearing--are substantial benefits whether one is arrested once a month for public intoxication or once in a lifetime. The copious evidence adduced at trial indicated that more than 60,000 arrests for public intoxication were made in the City and County of Los Angeles in the year preceding the lawsuit. In Daniels v. McKinney (1983) 146 Cal.App.3d 42, 50, 193 Cal.Rptr. 842, a case involving pretrial detainees at the Fresno County jail, the 20,000 persons who were held at the jail in the course of a year were found to constitute a large class. Even taking into consideration repeat arrests, the size of the class here is approximately twice as large as the class in Daniels. Accordingly, we have no difficulty in upholding the trial court's determination that a large class of persons was benefitted in the instant case.