Bruce Zamost

Bruce Zamost has been recognized by the NJ Supreme Court as a Certified Civil Trial Attorney.  Mr. Zamost’s extensive state and federal jury trial, bench trial and appellate court experience is the product of many substantial verdicts and settlements over the past 4 decades.  Among Bruce’s noteworthy verdicts and settlements are cases in which the insurance carriers were compelled to pay amounts in excess of policy limits, based on bad faith conduct proven by Mr. Zamost.

Bruce is a Cherry Hill, NJ native who returned to South Jersey after earning his law degree at Emory University Law School in Atlanta, GA.  Bruce and his wife have 2 daughters, a son and 2 dogs.

Bruce concentrates his practice representing clients injured in motor vehicle accidents, premises accidents including falls, and injuries caused by defective products.  Bruce’s expertise also includes representing the victims of sexual assaults (including clergy and teacher sexual abuse), medical malpractice, legal malpractice and architectural malpractice.

Mr. Zamost obtained a $2.7 million jury verdict for the victim of a retinal detachment in an optometric malpractice in Burlington County, NJ.  In that case, the jury found that the optometrist failed to immediately refer his patient to a retinal specialist and that such failure constituted malpractice.

Also among Bruce’s jury verdicts is the groundbreaking circular saw product defect case he successfully tried and thereafter successfully argued to the NJ Supreme Court, over the course of 8 years of litigation:  Cavanaugh v. Skil Corp., 331 NJS 134 (AD 1999); 164 NJ 1 (2000).  In Cavanaugh, the NJ Supreme Court established the state-of-the-art doctrine, comparative negligence principles and constitutional law precedents under the NJ Product Liability Act. 

Mr. Zamost has taken on tool manufacturers in the federal courts as well, including securing a jury verdict based upon design defects in a popular lawnmower, causing a foot injury to a consumer (Pohlig v. Craftsman and Aircap).

Among Bruce’s published federal court cases is his representation of a high school student, sexually assaulted at a school, which resulted in a favorable ruling implicating the school’s obligation to protect its students.  Lockhart v. Willingboro High School, 170 FSupp 3d 722 (2015).

Bruce’s medical malpractice wrongful death trial and appellate decision produced a key precedent in favor of malpractice victims, permitting the use of an emergency medicine physician’s standard of care testimony to address nursing liability.  Lauckhardt v. RWJ University Hospital, 2015 NJS Unpub. LEXIS 2393.  In that trial, the patient was allowed to needlessly bleed to death for 4 hours, as alleged, in the hallway of a Level 1 trauma center, after sustaining a treatable aortic tear.

In  another published case, Bruce was counsel for a nurse who claimed exposure to toxins from a degraded HVAC filter in her workplace.  That case produced an important appellate decision identifying when an insurance company is responsible in bad faith for failing to defend or provide coverage.  Wear v. Selective Insurance Co., 455 NJS 440 (AD 2018).

Other published decisions include Mr. Zamost’s settlement of the seminal NJ Supreme Court charitable immunity case on behalf of the victim.  Bieker v. Community House of Moorestown, 169 NJ 167 (2001).

In addition to Bruce’s experience representing plaintiffs in complex cases, Mr. Zamost has represented defendants in high-stakes litigation, including Fortune 500 companies, e.g. Philip Morris and the CEO of the largest medical malpractice carrier in PA.  His inside-view of the defense litigation landscape has enabled Mr. Zamost to navigate around the landmines planted by defendants.  This unique perspective has armed Bruce in a unique way on behalf of the plaintiffs he represents.

Bruce has been a civil litigator in private practice since 1985, after serving 2 judicial clerkships in 2 states and working as a legislative aide both in NJ and in Washington, DC.  He has served as a shareholder and partner in some of NJ’s most prestigious litigation law firms throughout his career and is very pleased to be with Helmer, Conley & Kasselman.

Community Activities

• *Volunteer trial lawyer with Trial Lawyers Care, Inc. whose purpose was to donate legal expertise to the victims and families of the events of 9/11.
• *Appointed by the NJ Bar Association to serve as the South Jersey liaison to its Pro Bono Task Force.
• *Author/instructor of Civil Trial Litigation and Insurance Company Bad  Faith for the National Business Institute (1998, 2004).
• *Civil trial preparation instructor for the NJ Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE).
• *Lecturer for the American Inns of Court.
• *Lecturer for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), now the American Association for Justice (AAJ).
• *Security Committee, Eastern Regional High School, Voorhees, NJ.
• *NJ State Bar Association.
• *Burlington County Bar Association.
• *American Association for Justice.
• *National Crime Victims Bar Association.

Clerkships

• Judicial Clerk to the Honorable George Farrell, III, Superior Court of New Jersey, Salem County (1984-1985)
• Judicial Clerk to the Honorable Calvin T. Wilson, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia, PA (1983)