Joe Zarzaur is proud to be a trial lawyer. His career is dedicated to representing families that have been the victim of another's wrongdoing. Joe Zarzaur is a Board Certified Civil Trial Specialist and recognized so by the Florida Bar and the National Board of Trial Advocacy.

Joe Zarzaur was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He received his undergraduate degree from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. At Spring Hill, Joe was active in student government while maintaining strong academic credentials In his senior year, he was elected Spring Hill College's Student Government Association President. During his tenure, his administration was active in sponsoring visits from both Democratic and Republican Presidential campaigns. The S.G.A. also brought several national bands to Spring Hill's campus including "The Radiators" and "The Connells." 

Following his graduation from Spring Hill, Joe returned to Birmingham to attend the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University.  While at Cumberland, Mr. Zarzaur focused his education towards his goal of becoming a civil trial lawyer.  For example, during his first months in law school Joe chose to participate in a mock trial competition reserved for first year students. His participation in this competitions and several others at Cumberland resulted in his being selected to represent his law school on its National Trial Team. Mr. Zarzaur also made the Dean's List at Cumberland while, at the same time, volunteering his time after school to assist in representing indigent criminal defendants. During his third year of law school, Joe assisted in his first capital murder trial defense.

Upon earning his law degree, Joe Zarzaur passed the Florida Bar exam with such a high score that the Alabama bar did not require him to take its full exam.  After law school graduation, Joe was offered  a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Edward B. McDermott, Circuit Judge for the 13th Judicial Circuit of Alabama. This clerkship provided Joe with invaluable experience inside the civil jury trial system. He had the opportunity to observe the "behind the scenes" workings of our wonderful jury system.

After his clerkship, Joe Zarzaur accepted a job as a civil defense lawyer at the law firm, Carr, Alford, Clausen and McDonald in Mobile, Alabama.  He eventually became the primary outside trial counsel for Bituminous Insurance Company and assisted in defending several life insurance companies. Defending insurance companies would quickly become unappealing. So, in what he describes as a "Jerry McGuire" moment, he told this insurance defense firm that he was going to do less of this work and start focusing on other areas, including personal injury and criminal defense. Joe quickly made headlines representing several "high profile" criminal defendants. These cases included crimes ranging from rape to the successful representation of two capital murder defendants.  Joe went from handling criminal defense work for no fee to commanding substantial retainers in cases which involved the death penalty.  His criminal and insurance defense work continued until 2001 when Joe decided to focus on the one area of law for which he felt provided the most help to his clients.  This area was representing those persons injured or killed due to the negligence of others.

In January of 2001, Joe Zarzaur moved to Pensacola, Florida and joined the law firm McKenzie and Taylor, P.A. While at the McKenzie firm, Joe would try over 20 civil jury trials and would be responsible for resolving millions of dollars in cases. Joe focused much of his attention to "resort type" injuries that included several jet-ski and parasail death cases, as well as other serious injury cases from automobile wrecks to medical malpractice. In a few years,  Mr. Zarzaur had already handled jury trials in several different states including Alabama, Florida, California, North Carolina and Louisiana.

In 2004, Joe Zarzaur was proud to serve John Kerry as special counsel during that year's presidential election. As part of this job, Joe spent many hours at the Escambia County supervisor of elections office participating in various election ballot dispute hearings on behalf of the Kerry/Edwards campaign.

In 2006, Mr. Zarzaur was certified by the Florida Bar and the National Board of Trial Advocacy as a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer also known as a civil trial specialist.   This recognition is reserved for those lawyers who have substantial experience as civil trial lawyers, positive peer reviews (both from judges and fellow lawyers) and who successfully pass a 6-hour exam devoted solely to civil trial issues. The Florida Bar describes this achievement as

" . . .the highest level of recognition by The Florida Bar concerning the competency and learning of attorneys . . ."

Only 1% of lawyers in Florida are Board Certified in their area of specialty and it is the highest measure of competency permitted by the Supreme Court of Florida.

In 2007, Joe left the McKenzie firm where he had become a partner and started Zarzaur Law, P.A.  In October of 2007, Joe Zarzaur tried a serious injury case in Santa Rosa County, Florida that resulted in a multi-million dollar verdict. This verdict was especially special to Joe since the insurance company had refused to settle that case for a reasonable demand.

In 2008, Joe Zarzaur was involved in a case that received international media attention. Joe has the proud pleasure of representing gold medalist and world champion track star Justin Gatlin. During this representation, Joe Zarzaur was up against various sports organizations from all over the world including the United States Olympic Committee and the International Association of Athletics Federations. This case involved claims that various of these defendants discriminated against Mr. Gatlin. The suit was ultimately settled under confidential terms.

In 2008 Joe served the Democratic Party again as counsel to the Obama/Biden Campaign. This role again place Joe into the position of insuring that all legally cast votes were counted and that any disputed ballots were rightfully adjudicated.   

In 2010,  Joe was selected by then Florida Governor Charlie Crist as a commissioner for the First Judicial Circuit's Judicial Nominating Commission.  This Commission is charged with the responsibility of selected judges for the trial courts in most of the Florida Panhandle.  Joe feels that this public service position permits him to assist in making certain that our courtrooms are run by the best possible judges available.  

In 2011, after working on a case for eight years, Joe obtained one of the largest single injury verdict's in Escambia County, Florida.  The case was against Ethicon Endo Surgery, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson.  The defense lawyers in that case never seemed to give Joe's client the respect he felt the case deserved.  The company never made any serious offers to settle and after the jury heard about two weeks worth of evidence from both sides the verdict was in favor of Joe's client for $9.3 million dollars.

Joe and his wife Camilla have two daughters Bella and Zoë.  Mr. Zarzaur is an avid triathlete and a 2004 finisher of Ironman® Brazil. Joe Zarzaur has competed in several half-Ironman races, many marathons and various sprint and olympic distance triathlons.  Family time is very important to Joe and when he is not working or working out he can likely be found with his family.