John Uustal
Proven VerdictsAbout John Uustal
John J. Uustal is a founding partner of Kelley | Uustal Trial Attorneys in Fort Lauderdale, where he limits his practice to a small number of catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases, including cases other lawyers say cannot be won. He started law school at the University of Miami the day after Hurricane Andrew struck, finished the compressed first year ranked first in the student body, and graduated summa cum laude before reportedly earning the highest score in the state on the Florida Bar exam. He prosecuted criminal cases in Miami before turning to civil trial work, where he won a $51 million car crash verdict early in his career and helped uncover a corporate scheme to conceal the cause of fuel fed fires in General Motors vehicles. He has won every case he has tried against tobacco companies and every keyless ignition defect case he has handled, and his work on vehicle defects contributed to a New York Times investigation and U.S. Senate hearings.
In 2023 he secured an $82.6 million Broward County verdict for the musician Flo Rida against Celsius Holdings, and in 2025 his trial team's Johnson & Johnson talc verdict was named a top 10 verdict by Courtroom View Network. He is board certified as a civil trial specialist, has chaired the trial and appellate sections of the Broward County Bar Association, serves on the board of the Florida Justice Association, and has been named Product Liability Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers. He holds a B.S. from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
Proven verdicts and settlements
A Broward County jury awarded Robert and Connie McGee and their daughter $60 million in 1998 after the fuel tank of the station wagon they were riding in was punctured and exploded in a low speed collision, killing the couple's 13 year old son and severely burning the three of them. General Motors defended the tank as safe. The jury found the automaker liable for the burns caused by the fire and declined to award punitive damages. A trial court setoff briefly cut the family's recovery to about $33 million for the fault the jury assigned to the driver whose trailer broke loose, but Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal vacated that reduction, holding that comparative fault does not reduce damages for the enhanced injuries caused by a defective fuel tank, and the full verdict was entered by amended final judgment in 2003. A second appeal, decided in 2004, confirmed that interest runs from the May 18, 1998 verdict date.
Dr. Alberto A. Casaretto, Sr., a Fort Lauderdale nephrologist, used Johnson & Johnson's Baby Powder daily for close to five decades and was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma in October 2017. He and his wife sued Johnson & Johnson in Broward County Circuit Court in 2018, alleging the company's talc was contaminated with asbestos; he died of the disease in 2022 at 79, and his son continued the case as a wrongful death claim. After a trial that opened in late September 2025, a Broward County jury found Johnson & Johnson liable on design defect and manufacturing defect claims and awarded the family $20,000,000 in compensatory damages on October 28, 2025. Johnson & Johnson has said it will appeal, arguing its talc does not contain asbestos or cause cancer; no appellate ruling has been reported.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
