Joseph Bruno
About Joseph Bruno
Joseph M. Bruno, Sr. is widely regarded as a creative, energetic, and outspoken advocate of victims' rights, particularly in difficult and complex cases of liability. He is a defender of class action procedures, seeing them as an important balancing tool in modern society. A graduate of Tulane University (B.A., 1977) and Tulane Law School (J.D., 1978), he went into partnership with his father, Frank S. Bruno, a well-known litigator in workers' compensation, in 1979. Bruno has been admitted to practice in all courts in Louisiana and Texas, as well as the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Louisiana, the United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Tax Court. He is recognized as an authority in class action management, having represented numerous claimants in proceedings involving racial discrimination, occupational lung disease, product liability, and wage and hour violations. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association for over 20 years.
Notable case results
Joseph Bruno and Bruno & Bruno served as lead plaintiffs' counsel in a landmark class action brought by more than 8,000 Gentilly residents exposed to a butadiene tank-car fire in 1987, securing a jury verdict that included $2.5 billion in punitive damages against CSX Transportation alone, later reduced to $850 million on appeal and affirmed by Louisiana's Fourth Circuit.
A New Orleans jury ordered four major tobacco companies to fund a $591 million statewide smoking cessation program for more than 200,000 Louisiana smokers, the first verdict of its kind in U.S. history.
Joseph Bruno served on the eight-member Plaintiffs' Legal Committee in a federal class action covering more than 17,000 people harmed when a corrosion failure triggered a catastrophic pre-dawn explosion at Shell's Norco, Louisiana refinery in May 1988, ultimately settling for nearly $172 million.
Joseph Bruno served as class counsel in a long-running class action on behalf of children who suffered lead poisoning from hazardous paint in Housing Authority of New Orleans units, securing a settlement fund of roughly $65.5 million.
Joseph Bruno led a class-action lawsuit against Tenet Healthcare after 45 patients died at Memorial Medical Center during Hurricane Katrina, securing a $25 million settlement in 2011.
Joseph Bruno served as Liaison Counsel in the federal class action that secured a $20.2 million settlement from the Orleans, East Jefferson, and Lake Borgne Basin levee districts for negligent levee maintenance that contributed to catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina.
In a landmark 2009 bellwether trial, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval held the Army Corps of Engineers liable for negligent maintenance of the MRGO shipping channel, awarding roughly $719,000 to plaintiffs whose homes were destroyed when Hurricane Katrina surge poured through the corridor into St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward.
Ducre v. Executive Officers of Halter Marine, Inc., 752 F.2d 976 (5th Cir. 1985)
Ducre v. Mine Safety Appliances Co., 634 F.Supp. 696 (E.D. La. 1986)
Casey Billieson, et al. v. City of New Orleans, et al. (Lead Paint Litigation), No. 94-19231
John Johnson, et al. v. Orleans Parish School Board, et al. (Agriculture Street Landfill), No. 93-1433
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
