John Vincent Garaffa

John V. Garaffa is a Partner at Butler Pappas. John devotes his practice to the analysis and litigation of property coverage disputes.  He has written widely on first party bad faith, punitive damages, discovery disputes, and on the application of state valued policy laws to property losses in Florida and other Gulf Coast States. He is the Vice-Chair of the Property Insurance Law General Committee within the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association. 

John is admitted to practice law before the state courts of Minnesota and Florida, and before the United States District Courts for the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Florida. John is a member of The Florida Bar, the American Bar Association and the Defense Research Institute.

John received his Bachelor of Business Administration, cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 1979, his Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota, cum laude, in 1982 and his Master of Laws degree, with distinction, from Georgetown University in 1991. He has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses as an adjunct faculty member and served as a National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) instructor.

Prior to joining the firm, John served on active duty for twenty-one years as a member of the Judge Advocate Generals Corp, United States Navy, retiring as a Captain. Among other assignments, John served as the Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General (Civil Affairs), Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General (Information Resources-CIO) and during his last four years of military service, the senior criminal court trial judge of the Southeast Judicial Circuit of the Navy-Marine Corps Trial Judiciary.