Michael Vincent Laurato, Sr. is a shareholder and partner in the law firm of Austin & Laurato, P.A., a statewide insurance practice, with offices located in Tampa, Brooksville, and Ocala, Florida. He practices civil trial law, first party insurance law, personal injury trial practice, appellate practice, and criminal defense. Mr. Laurato concentrates his practice and has worked extensively in matters involving insurance law, including hurricane, fire, theft, sinkhole, commercial losses, and coverage actions, in both Federal and Florida State Courts.
Mr. Laurato has written and published several law journal articles in the field of insurance law, which have been cited by commentators in other scholarly works, appellate courts of appeal, and treatises on insurance law. He has authored three articles which have been published in scholarly journals. His insurance articles have been cited by the Fifth District Court of Appeal, academic insurance treatises, West’s Florida’s Statutes Annotated, and by other scholars commenting, nationwide, on insurance issues.
He is an active member of the trial bar, regulalry trying cases to the court or jury in the trial courts, statewide. Mr. Laurato has tried over 50 disputed civil cases in various counties, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Hernando, Citrus, Osceola, Seminole, Orange and Miami-Dade Counties. Mr. Laurato is widely considered to be one of the most experienced policyholder sinkhole trial lawyers in Florida, having tried sinkhole cases to jury verdict in Hillsborough, Hernando, Citrus, and Seminole counties. In personal injury cases, he has obtained several million dollar verdicts for clients and is a certified member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.
Many of Mr Laurato’s cases have been newsworthy and have been featured prominently in either national or local print or television media. Mr. Laurato has acted as counsel in several newsworthy/high profile civil and criminal cases, which have garnered both local and national media attention. Mr. Laurato’s representation and cases have been featured in prominent print articles in The Chicago Sun-Times, the St. Petersburg Times, The Lakeland Ledger, The Tampa Tribune, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. His cases have also been featured on television news-casts such as Bay News 9, News Channel 8, and ABC Action News.
Besides his active trial practice, Mr. Laurato has a busy appellate practice. He has briefed and argued appellate cases in the Second, Third, and Fifth Appellate Districts, as well as briefing matters before The Florida Supreme Court. Cases handled by Mr. Laurato have been reported in the Southern Reporter, by various United States District Courts, and by Andrews Gun Industry Litigation Reporter. Several of the verdicts obtained by Mr. Laurato have been reported in the Florida Jury Verdict Reporter.
Mr. Laurato graduated from Jesuit High School in Tampa, Florida in 1991. He earned his J.D. in 1997 from The George Washington University National Law Center, one of the nation’s top-tiered law schools, where he was designated as a high honors recipient in the Trial Advocacy Program. He earned his B.A., in 1994 from Tulane University, where he double-majored in Political Science and Philosophy with a minor in Spanish and where he was a member of the prestigious Randall Lee Gibson Honor Society.
Mr. Laurato is admitted to The Florida Bar. He is also admitted to practice before the bars of The United States District Court for the Southern, Northern, and Middle Districts of Florida. Mr. Laurato has also been admitted pro hac vice to the bars of Louisiana and New York for work on particular cases.
Mr. Laurato is of counsel to other firms throughout the state of Florida for consultation on insurance matters. He also has been retained as an expert witness in matters pertaining to attorney’s fees in courts. Mr. Laurato is a member of American Trial Lawyers Associations, The Florida Academy of Trial Lawyers, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Trial Lawyers section of both The Florida Bar and the Hillsborough County Bar Association.
Mr. Laurato is bi-lingual and fluent in both English and Spanish. In his free time, he is an avid thoroughbred horse enthusiast, where he races and breeds thoroughbred race horses. Email Mr. Laurato at mlaurato@austinlaurato.com.