John Elliott Leighton is a board certified civil trial lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice, nursing home, product liability, sexual abuse and inadequate premises security litigation.

A nationally recognized advocate for crime victims, Mr. Leighton has been a leader in the field of inadequate premises security litigation and is the author of two volume treatise Litigating Premises Security Cases, published by Thomson-West (2006). It is the most comprehensive treatise on investigating, preparing and trying inadequate security cases and representing crime victims. He is the President-elect of the National Crime Victim Bar Association.

His trial in Jeffery v. Publix Super Markets, a landmark inadequate security case, was the subject of an entire chapter in the treatise Persuasive Jury Communication: Case Studies from Successful Trials, Chapter 10 (Shepard’s/McGraw-Hill, 1995). In addition to lecturing nationally on security and violent crime issues, Mr. Leighton has led training programs for crime victim advocates.

His verdicts and settlements for injured clients include $49 million for a sexual assault client, $24 million for a medical malpractice case and $24 million for an ATM shooting death.

Other published works by Mr. Leighton include chapters in Matthew Bender’s Product Liability Practice Guide and Wiley Publishers’ Litigating Spinal Cord Injuries books. His article on defective child car seats, entitled "Are Children Caught in the Seat of Disaster? Child Restraint Systems and Product Liability Cases" was published in the March 1998 issue of Trial magazine. This was followed by "Fighting New Defenses in Inadequate Security Cases," published in Trial (April 2000) and several others.

Mr. Leighton has also published "The Recall Process: Removing Defective Juvenile Products from the Market" in the Product Liability Law Reporter (May 1991) and "Market Share Liability: The Need for a Uniform Market Share Liability Act" in Trial (November 1985). He is a frequent lecturer at trial lawyers programs and has spoken and taught at seminars, colleges and conventions in over 15 states.

After serving as Chairman of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America’s (ATLA) Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway and Premises Liability Section, Mr. Leighton has gone on to chair ATLA’s (now the American Association of Justice) Inadequate Security Litigation Group. He is a charter member of the National Crime Victim Bar Association and is the recipient of their Advocate of Justice award. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the National College of Advocacy. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law, and holds an AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell.

Mr. Leighton has been voted as one of the Top Lawyers in South Florida in the South Florida Legal Guide for the last five years, which is a peer selected listing of the leading 250 attorneys out of 23,000 practitioners, has been named a Florida SuperLawyer (and voted as one of the top 100 of all the state SuperLawyers), and has been elected to the Florida Trend Legal Elite Top Lawyers in Florida by peer selection. He has also been chosen as "Orlando Legal Elite" by Orlando Style magazine. He received his undergraduate and law degrees with honors from the University of Florida, where he was an editor of the Florida Law Review, competed on the Trial Team, and taught first year jurisprudence.

Mr. Leighton is the Chairman of the Academy of Trial Advocacy, a national invitation-only association of leading catastrophic injury attorneys. Mr. Leighton has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America, Florida SuperLawyers, Top Lawyers in South Florida, Orlando Legal Elite, and Florida Trend magazine’s “Florida Legal Elite.”