About Michael Goetz

Michael Goetz has headed the mass tort section of Morgan & Morgan's complex litigation group since 2008, directing the firm's nationwide dangerous-drug and defective-medical-device dockets from Tampa. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Emory and honors graduate of the University of Florida's law school, he spent a decade at Holland & Knight, making partner in 2000, defending product liability and medical negligence claims before switching sides in 2002 to represent injured plaintiffs. Federal courts have appointed him to plaintiffs' steering committees in the Zostavax (co-lead counsel), Pradaxa, and transvaginal mesh MDLs, and he holds Martindale-Hubbell's highest AV rating.

Proven verdicts and settlements at Morgan & Morgan

These results are credited to Morgan & Morgan. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.

A jury found the owners of the Park Social bar liable for a 2017 staircase fall that left a 57-year-old patron a partial quadriplegic, returning a $644,751,855 premises-liability verdict that the defendants have appealed to Florida's Sixth District Court of Appeal.

Orange County Circuit Court, Florida · 2026Premises LiabilityRead the full story →

A federal jury in San Francisco found Google liable for invasion of privacy and intrusion upon seclusion after the company kept collecting data from third-party apps for users who had switched off the Web & App Activity setting. On September 3, 2025, the jury awarded $425,651,947 in compensatory damages and declined to award punitive damages. The award is a single class-wide figure shared by two nationwide classes of about 98 million users, not one person's recovery. The judge refused to set the verdict aside in August 2026, and Google has appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco · 2025Class ActionsRead the full story →
$190 millionSettlement

Morgan & Morgan's John Yanchunis served as court-appointed co-lead counsel in the multidistrict litigation over Capital One's 2019 data breach, which exposed the personal information of roughly 98 million U.S. customers. The $190 million settlement won final approval in 2022 as one of the largest data breach recoveries in U.S. history.

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria) · 2022Class ActionsRead the full story →
$120 millionVerdict

A Morgan & Morgan trial team won a $120 million Alachua County verdict for Jacob Rodgers, paralyzed at 20 when a Gainesville Regional Utilities driver ran a stop sign and broadsided the pickup he was riding in. After appeals and remittitur cut the judgment to $18.3 million, the case settled for $11 million, most of it paid through a Florida legislative claims bill that became law in 2025.

Eighth Judicial Circuit, Alachua County, Florida · 2021Car AccidentsRead the full story →
$117.5 millionSettlement

As court-appointed lead plaintiffs' counsel, Morgan & Morgan's John Yanchunis negotiated the $117.5 million settlement resolving claims from Yahoo's 2013-2016 data breaches, the largest theft of personal data in history, touching roughly 3 billion accounts worldwide. Judge Lucy Koh approved the fund in 2020 after rejecting an earlier version as inadequate.

U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose) · 2020Class ActionsRead the full story →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Education

University of Florida Levin College of Law
J.D., 1992
Emory University
Undergraduate, 1989

Bar admissions & credentials

State Bar of Florida, admitted 1992

Other attorneys at Morgan & Morgan

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Proven verdicts and settlements from other Tampa firms

The Yerrid Law Firm
The Yerrid Law Firm
$11.3 billion · Florida's Dream Team Beats Big Tobacco for $11.3 Billion: Yerrid's Racketeering Play Tripled the Stakes
Swope Rodante PA
Swope Rodante PA
$30.1 Million TBI Verdict After Insurer Refused to Settle
Wilkes & Associates, P.A.
Wilkes & Associates, P.A.
$1.1 Billion Verdict Over Nursing Home Resident's 17 Falls, Never Paid by Insolvent Defendants
MattLaw Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyers
MattLaw Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyers
$160,000 Verdict for Marion County Woman After Rear-End Crash Left Her With Seizures and Memory Loss

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.