Bruce Jones

Pretrial, Posttrial & Appellate Experience

For over 30 years, Bruce has focused his practice on mass tort and appellate litigation in state and federal courts around the country. Significant posttrial and appellate decisions include:

• Kline v. Zimmer, Inc., 79 Cal. App. 5th 123, 294 Cal. Rptr. 3d 500 (2022), review denied (Aug. 31, 2022) (establishing for first time under California law that defendant that does not bear the burden of proof on causation may offer alternative-cause evidence that does not itself establish causation to a reasonable medical probability).
• Cortez v. Cook Inc., 27 F.4th 563 (7th Cir. 2022) (holding that statute of repose for product liability action was not subject to equitable tolling based on fraudulent concealment).
• In re Cook Med., Inc., 27 F.4th 539 (7th Cir. 2022) (holding party who failed to take timely action due to excusable neglect may not seek relief under Rule 60(b)(6)’s catch-all provision).
• In re Cook Med., Inc., IVC Filters Mktg., Sales Pracs. & Prod. Liab. Litig., 431 F. Supp. 3d 1033 (S.D. Ind. 2020) (granting new trial based on severe prejudicial effect of mistakenly admitted evidence).
• C.C. by & through Camarata v. Polaris Indus., Inc., 774 F. App’x 45, 47 (2d Cir. 2019) (affirming denial of new trial after defense verdict, rejecting arguments addressing crashworthiness, intervening causation and evidentiary rulings).

In addition to his long experience in briefing and oral argument, Bruce has conducted wide-ranging appellate motion practice, pursued and resisted petitions for extraordinary writs of mandamus and prohibition, and sought and opposed discretionary appeals. Bruce serves as the head of the law and briefing teams in multiple mass torts and multidistrict litigation courts. In that role, Bruce also consults extensively on trial court tactics for litigants in state and federal courts, advising and guiding on anticipated appeals, motions, jury instructions and other arguments directed to preserving issues for appeal.

Personal Interests

Bruce has a master of fine arts degree in playwriting from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop and teaches college classes in playwriting. Bruce is also a longtime comic book collector, specializing in comic books published between 1842 and 1938.