Christine Pritchard, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said the decision established a favorable precedent for the state in several other Indian land-claims cases.

Environmentalists support the cap, saying it would set a favorable precedent for the rest of the country.

Liberty Counsel has established its goals revolving around influencing policy and providing courts with the legal rationale to develop precedent favorable to its mission.

He appeared to mean that criminals should not be allowed to rely on favorable precedents.

Since we had to file the appeal 30 days after the sentence, there was not enough time to dig in and find favorable precedent.

In this case, Koons won; the case sets a favorable precedent for appropriation art where the use is deemed transformative.

In fact, the negotiations that US Airways has been engaged in since filing for Chapter 11 protection in August have already set a favorable precedent for United, industry experts say.

However, in most instances the plaintiffs' desire was to establish favorable precedent, not to impose harsh penalties, and the fines were typically modest.

In his view, litigation was "just partly about winning the case and establishing a favorable legal precedent," wrote Robert Murphy, a lawyer who is working on a biography of Mr. Stoddard.

They say one option is to pick off the friendliest companies first and use those contracts to set a favorable precedent.