Alex Jones was ordered to pay $965 million by a jury.
Lawyers said the damages may be with him for a long time.
The families may never get the full amount due to the challenges of collecting the damages.
As a judge read off the nearly $1 billion in damages a jury ordered Alex Jones to pay the families of Sandy Hook victims on Wednesday, theInfowars host held a livestream for his followers in which he mocked the verdict in real time.
Do these people believe they are getting any money? Jones made a statement.
Legal experts told Insider that it is unlikely that Jones will be able to escape the judgement.
Matthew Barhoma, attorney and founder of Power Trial Lawyers and Barhoma Law, said that he sees a lot of claims from Alex Jones about how he's never going to pay it.
He said that this may be a debt that will follow him for the rest of his life.
A jury in Connecticut ordered Jones to pay $965 million to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Jones said that the shooting was a hoax meant to rile support for gun restrictions.
The amount of damages for a defamation case was jaw-dropping, according to lawyers. Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, said he expected the damages to be less than a hundred million dollars.
The jury's decision to award compensation rather than punishment is a problem for Jones.
Criminals are simply looking to be punished. Although Jones is certain to appeal the verdict, an appellate court will be less likely to interfere with the jury's decision.
Several lawyers told Insider that compensation is not capped in Connecticut. In US states with caps on damages, judgments are usually lowered by a judge in order to comply with the law.
Barhoma said Jones will likely be stuck with this debt for many years to come because of this. In an appearance on MSNBC on Wednesday, a former US attorney predicted the same thing.
Even if he's able to bob and weave some, I don't think he'll be able to make ends meet for the rest of his life.
Jones will likely try to avoid paying out the families in full by pursuing other means, such as a settlement or bankruptcy. It's hard to get this kind of debt forgiven in a bankruptcy case.
Barhoma said good luck for whether or not Jones's lawyers will be able to get him off the hook.
Whether or not the families will get paid the full amount they are due is one thing Jones may be correct about.
The near billion dollars that was awarded was meant to be exemplary, according to a Beverly Hills entertainment attorney.
An economist testified at a Jones trial in Texas that he and his company were worth between $135 million and $270 million. Jones's company filed for Chapter 11 in July in order to avoid paying damages.
In order for the Connecticut families to collect their judgments, their legal teams would have to do the work of connecting Jones to his various shell companies, and pierce the corporate veil to show that the companies and Jones are one and the same.
Chris Mattei, one of the lawyers for the Sandy Hook families, said after the verdict was read that they will be looking at Jones' assets.
Regardless of how much the families are paid out, the lawyers said the judgement sent a message about Jones, who they described as an unsympathetic defendant all the way until the end.
The jury felt that Alex Jones' actions and behavior was egregious and they wanted to send a message.
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