Firm Background

The Burnette law firm was established in October of 2002 when Mr. Burnette left the law firm of Butler Burnette Pappas LLP where he was a founding partner and member of the firm for more than 20 years. The Burnette law firm was created to provide a highly personalized representation of clients in a "small firm" environment. With a select group of professionals to handle your files, you can be assured that you will know who is handling your case when the assignment is made. Clients have the opportunity to interact with all of our attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants and administrative staff when a file is entrusted to the firm for handling. At the same time, our personalized approach allows us to become familiar with all of our clients and their unique needs and concerns.

The firm's insurance practice areas include first-party and third-party coverage analysis, liability defense, fraud/arson defense, subrogation, bad faith claims, catastrophe claims, class action cases and related claims litigation on behalf of insurance carriers. Mr. Burnette is a nationally recognized attorney in first-party coverage matters and fire loss litigation, including fraud/arson, fire liability, subrogation, product liability, and related matters. He is the author of more than 100 published articles and papers on these issues and has lectured at professional and legal conferences throughout the United States and Canada, as well as the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and Europe. Mr. Burnette has been responsible for the drafting and enactment of state and federal legislation on various issues for more than 30 years. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center/ATF National Academy and the Florida Fire College, and is certified as an instructor on insurance-related issues by the Florida Department of Financial Services.

The firm represents insurance carriers, reinsurers and excess & surplus lines companies in administrative and regulatory matters including rate filings, market conduct investigations, reporting compliance and related proceedings before the Florida Department of Financial Services and other state agencies.

The firm handles general corporate and business litigation matters, as well as alternative dispute resolution proceedings before the American Arbitration Association and other arbitration/mediation forums. Additionally, the firm represents business clients before administrative and regulatory agencies at the state and local levels.

Admiralty and maritime claims represent another aspect of the firm's practice. This includes cargo and hull claims, marine subrogation, and in rem actions for maritime salvage.

 In the firm's brief history, there has already been significant growth in our professional staff and our client base. However, our commitment to providing personalized service to our clients remains unchanged. Our focus and our first priority will always be our clients. We hope you will give us the opportunity to demonstrate the specialized service we can provide to the clients of our firm. Please review the other sections of our Web site to learn more about the firm and its professional staff.

Mission Statement
We will provide the highest quality legal representation for our clients in every file we are entrusted to handle. We will adhere to the highest standards of ethical conduct at every stage of our representation. We will treat our clients with dignity and respect in all of our dealings with them.