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.