The judge in Alex Jones’s bankruptcy case ruled on Thursday that he will not be allowed to use his Chapter 11 filing to evade paying more than $1 billion in verdicts to families of the Sandy Hook shooting.

The ruling by Judge Christopher Lopez in a Houston bankruptcy court means that Mr. Jones, the Infowars conspiracy broadcaster, will likely be working the rest of his life to pay his debt to the families.

Mr. Jones spent years spreading lies that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax aimed at confiscating Americans’ firearms.

But he excluded $323 million in attorneys’ fees and costs awarded in the Connecticut lawsuit, ruling that the trial record did not clearly establish that those damages stemmed from “willful and malicious” actions.

So while he was “reckless,” his lawyer Chris Davis said, “the idea that he had a willful and malicious intent is in substantial and factual dispute,” and needed to be adjudicated separately in court.

Though the ruling largely closes off a forced outcome like that, settlement talks continue because Mr. Jones’s current assets are likely not sufficient to cover the damages in full.

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