James Michael Shaw , Jr.
Partner | Tampa
James Michael Shaw, Jr., is a partner with Butler’s Tampa office. During his sixteen years with the firm, he has focused the majority of his practice on representing insurers and insurance intermediaries in bad-faith and other extracontractual matters and insurance-coverage disputes in Florida’s state and federal courts, as well as the courts of other states. In addition, James represents insurers and agents in Florida’s state and federal appellate courts. He also dedicates a significant portion of his practice to representing out-of-state insurers embroiled in Florida litigation. James is one of Florida’s leading authorities on uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, having successfully represented insurers in trial and appellate litigation relating to disputed claims for UM coverage in both coverage and extracontractual litigation.
James is an AV-rated attorney by Martindale-Hubble and was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Unsung Hero Award by the Hillsborough County Chapter of the NAACP and the First Amendment Award by the Greater Tampa Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. He is a member of the international honors fraternity Phi Delta Phi and a frequent lecturer throughout the Tampa Bay area concerning insurance law, drone law, voting rights law, and civil-rights law. James graduated magna cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law, where he served as an Articles and Comments Editor for the University of Miami Law Review and was elected to the prestigious Order of the Coif. During law school, James served as a Department of Justice intern with the Appellate Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, preparing appellate briefs for the United States government. James graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition from the Honors College of Oakland University, where he was awarded the Distinguished Undergraduate Achievement Award. James has also served as an adjunct professor at St. Petersburg College, where he taught Legal Research & Writing. He is also a member of the American Bar Association, the Aviation Insurance Association, the DRI, the Florida Defense Lawyers Association, and the Hillsborough County Bar Association. In 2013, James became a graduate of the International Association of Defense Counsel Trial Academy held at Stanford University.
James also has a strong background in aviation law, having represented airlines, airports, and repair stations in litigation arising from aviation-related accidents. He is an authority on the emerging body of law governing drones and privacy torts, coauthoring Butler on Drones: A Practical Guide For Insurers, one of the first books about drone law, and has lectured and written extensively about the law governing drones.
In addition to his work on behalf of insurers, James dedicates his spare time to pro bono civil-rights work and has worked extensively with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, the NAACP, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. James chaired the Legal Panel of the Greater Tampa Chapter of the ACLU of Florida for over fifteen years and served on the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Florida, for which he served as Legal Panel Chair from 2020 through 2022. In addition, James serves as pro bono local counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) in the Bradley v. Pinellas County School Board school-desegregation case. James also represented the ACLU of Florida in American Civil Liberties Union of Florida Foundation v. Nocco, a public-records law case where he obtained an order requiring the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office to publicize video footage of Sheriff’s deputies using force against an inmate over the Sheriff’s objection to disclosure of the footage.
Admissions
- Florida
Education
- Oakland University
Bachelor in Music Composition, magna cum laude - University of Miami School of Law
Doctor of Jurisprudence, magna cum laude
Memberships
- American Bar Association (ABA)
- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
- Aviation Insurance Association
- Defense Research Institute (DRI)
- Drones: Regulations, Operations and Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Air and Space Law
- Florida Defense Lawyers Association (FDLA)
- Hillsborough County Bar Association (HCBA)
- Order of the Coif
- Phi Delta Phi
- The Florida Bar
Courts
- All Florida State Courts
- Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals
- United States District Court – Northern District of Florida
- United States District Court – Middle District of Florida
- United States District Court – Southern District of Florida
Experiences
Representative Appellate Cases
State Farm Auto. Ins. Co. v. Lightfoot, 346 So. 3d 636 (Fla. 1st DCA 2022), cert. denied, No. SC22-1352, 2023 WL 180067 (Fla. Jan. 13, 2023) – reversing a $1.4 million fee award under a proposal for settlement on the grounds that the Proposal for Settlement was illusory and not made in good faith where it required actual tender of payment of $1.3 million within thirty days in order to accept it and where the plaintiff had no good-faith belief that the offeree was financially able to comply with that condition.
Kilgore v. Mosher, 336 So. 3d 1185 (Fla. 1st DCA 2022) (table) – per curiam affirmance of an order denying a plaintiff’s motion to add the defendant’s insurance carrier to a fee judgment entered pursuant to a proposal for settlement where the carrier disputed coverage for the fee award under the policy’s supplemental-payments provision because the proposal for settlement was for an amount exceeding the insured’s policy limit.
State Farm Fire & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Wilson, 330 So. 3d 67 (Fla. 2d DCA 2021) – reversing a judgment for underinsured-motorist coverage premised upon an alleged discrepancy between language in the signed form rejecting stacking coverage and a policy exclusion, holding instead that the form’s language is deemed adequate if previously approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
Holliday v. Markel Syndicate 3000 at Underwriters at Lloyds, London, 791 Fed. App’x 891 (11th Cir. 2020) – Affirming the dismissal of a pro se action on limitations grounds.
Klein v. Avatar Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 252 So.3d 1187 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018) (table) – affirming per curiam a trial court’s summary judgment for an insurer where the insureds refused to appear for an examination under oath.
State Farm Auto. Ins. Co. v. Lyde, 267 So. 3d 453 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018) – reversing a trial court’s judgment affording UM coverage under a policy containing an “other owned vehicle” exclusion where the injured party had rejected UM coverage and tried to obtain it through another household member’s policy, which carried only non-stacking UM coverage.
Higgins v. W. Bend Mut. Ins. Co., 85 So. 3d 1156 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012) – affirming summary judgment for an insurer against Minnesota plaintiffs attempting to invoke Florida law to assert a bad-faith claim against a Wisconsin-based insurer.
W. Bend Mut. Ins. Co. v. Higgins, 9 So. 3d 655 (Fla. 5th DCA 2009) – certiorari quashing a trial-court order that required disclosure of an insurer’s post-judgment communications with its counsel.
Representative Trial-Court Cases
Bayfront Cent. Sec. & Sys., Inc. v. N.Y. Cent. Mut. Ins. Co., 17 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 181a (Fla. 6th Cir. Ct. 2010) – order dismissing the multi-count complaint against New York automobile insurer for lack of personal jurisdiction.
Bayshore TBI, Inc. v. MemberSelect Ins. Co., 28 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D 35 (M.D. Fla. 2019) – order staying a Michigan No-Fault action under the Colorado River abstention doctrine in deference to an earlier-filed case pending in Michigan.
Bele v. 21st Century Centennial Ins. Co., 25 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D193a (M.D. Fla. 2015) – order denying motion to remand where Plaintiffs contended that the amount-in-controversy requirement had not been proven.
Bele v. 21st Century Centennial Ins. Co., 126 F. Supp. 3d 1293 (M.D. Fla. 2015) – order dismissing an unripe bad-faith action and a declaratory-judgment claim seeking to fix damages in the bad-faith claim, both of which were joined to a claim for UM coverage.
Bennett v. 21st Century Sec. Ins. Co., No. 2013-CA-012378-O, 2016 WL 4398685 (Fla. 9th Cir. Ct. Aug. 17, 2016) – summary judgment entered for insurer where underlying action was dismissed with prejudice pursuant to a joint stipulation for dismissal.
Betzoldt v. Auto Club Group Ins. Co., 26 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 385a (Fla. 13th Cir. Ct. 2018) – order entering summary judgment on a plaintiff’s vicarious-liability claim and rejecting the plaintiff’s argument that an insurance company is vicariously liable for the legal malpractice of a law firm retained to represent its insured.
Bollinger v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 23 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D159 (S.D. Fla. 2012), aff’d, 538 Fed. App’x. 857 (11th Cir. 2013) – summary judgment entered and affirmed in first-party bad-faith action where the plaintiff had not filed a Civil Remedy Notice.
Borrego v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 24 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D350a (S.D. Fla. 2014) – order dismissing a spousal-derivative bad-faith action where Civil Remedy Notice was silent as to the spousal claim.
Holliday v. Lloyd’s, Underwriters at, London, No. 8:17-cv-2063-T-33AEP, 2017 WL 6624160 (M.D. Fla. Dec. 28, 2017) – order dismissing pro se litigant’s claim against “Lloyd’s, Underwriters at, London” on the ground that such is not a legal entity capable of being sued.
Holliday v. Syndicate 3000 at Lloyd’s, Underwriters at, London, 27 Fla. Weekly Fed. D169a (M.D. Fla. 2018) – order dismissing claim for malicious prosecution as barred by the statute of limitations.
Holliday v. Syndicate 3000 at Lloyd’s, Underwriters at, London, 28 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D 35 (M.D. Fla. May 15, 2018) – order dismissing pro se litigant’s claim for inadequate service of process.
Johnson v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 26 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D6a (M.D. Fla. 2016) –order denying remand of a removed bad-faith action appended to a UM case.
King v. Germania Select Ins. Co., 29 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D171a (M.D. Fla. 2023) – order denying a motion to remand the case where the plaintiff disputed that the amount in controversy exceeded the $75,000 statutory threshold and sent a demand for $74,500 on the same day as the motion to remand.
Mathurin v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 285 F. Supp. 3d 1311 (M.D. Fla. 2018) – order dismissing first-party bad-faith claim on the ground that the Civil Remedy Notice attached to the Complaint listed a policy number corresponding to a different insurance policy than the one that was the subject of the claim for bad faith.
Quirantes v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 29 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D55a (S.D. Fla. 2021) – order entering partial summary judgment for a carrier that covered more than one vehicle in the same accident, holding that the carrier did not owe one insured a duty to tender the bodily injury liability limits under another insured’s policy.
Signature Flight Support v. Lan Chile Airlines – Award for the defendant in an international arbitration regarding the cause of a December 1, 1998 aircraft-wing fire that began under a fuel truck’s cab and quickly spread to the wing of a Boeing-747.
Smith v. 21st Century Centennial Ins. Co., 25 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D52 (M.D. Fla. 2014) – dismissing a declaratory judgment action seeking to fix damages for an unripe bad-faith action and abating the unripe bad-faith action.
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Lampila, 30 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D13a, 2023 WL 6123755 (M.D. Fla. 2023) – summary declaratory judgment holding that, under a mounted-equipment exclusion, an insurer was not required to defend or indemnify the operator of a truck against a negligence action brought by a man who claimed to have slipped and fallen on fluid that leaked from a concrete pump mounted on the insured vehicle.
Swanson v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 27 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D 199 (M.D. Fla. 2019) – order dismissing a complaint that sought to assert a claim for the “willful tort of bad faith,” agreeing with State Farm’s argument that Florida law does not recognize such a cause of action.
Thorne v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 25 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. D117a (M.D. Fla. 2015) – order denying a motion to remand an unripe bad-faith action asserted prior to the resolution of the underlying action for uninsured-motorist benefits.
Thorne v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 25 Fla L. Weekly Fed. D116a (M.D. Fla. 2015) – order dismissing an unripe bad-faith action brought before resolution of the underlying action for UM benefits.
Media
New Appleman Florida Insurance Law (2024 Edition)
Butler congratulates its Partners on the 2024 New Appleman Florida Insurance Law Edition. This book was edited by Partner John Garaffa and co-authored by Partners Sarah Burke, Ryan Hilton, Julius “Rick” Parker III, Carol Rooney, Jason Seitz, James Michael Shaw, Jr., and J. Blake Hunter. LexisNexis Practice Guide: New Appleman Florida Insurance Law provides the practitioner with immediate ac...
James Shaw, Jr. Awarded Thurgood Marshall Unsung Hero Award
Join us in congratulating Partner James Michael Shaw, Jr. for receiving the Thurgood Marshall Unsung Hero Award at the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner on October 21, 2022. The award is given to someone who is willing to go above and beyond in serving others in the community, exemplifying one of our firm's principles of Service. ...
Florida Law Catches Up to Stalking Drones
In 2015, Dan Mouneimne’s stepdaughter sat outside a downtown Tampa bar when she noticed a drone hovering around her. She fled to her car, and it followed her and crashed on top of her car. The Tampa Police Department told Mr. Mouneimne he could keep the drone, but otherwise there was nothing they could do. WFLA reporter Sunde Farquhar quipped, “Problem is, the technology has evolved so quickly...
New Appleman Florida Insurance Law (2022 Edition)
JOHN V. GARAFFA, SARAH R. BURKE, RYAN K. HILTON, JULIUS F. "RICK" PARKER III, JASON M. SEITZ, J. BLAKE HUNTER, CAROL M. ROONEY, JAMES MICHAEL SHAW, JR. Butler congratulates its Partners on the 2022 Edition of the New Appleman Florida Insurance Law. This book was edited by Partner John Garaffa and co-authored by Partners Sarah Burke, Ryan Hilton, Julius "Rick" Parker III, Carol Rooney, Jason Seitz...
James Shaw – ACLU of Sarasota Annual Meeting
The ACLU of Sarasota's annual meeting was held on Tuesday, December 1st at 6pm on Zoom for our annual board elections and a Know Your Rights presentation. We welcomed our guest of honor, James Michael Shaw, Jr., as he discussed protesters’ rights with us. James Michael Shaw, Jr., has chaired the Legal Panel for the Greater Tampa Chapter of the ACLU of Florida since 2007 and is the current c...
