Charles Ramsay
DWI Attorney in Minnesota
Founding Partner Since 1995
Biography:
Minnesota’s Only ABA-Recognized Board Certified DWI Defense Lawyer
Charles “Chuck” Ramsay is one of Minnesota’s most accomplished DWI defense lawyers and the founder of Ramsay Law Firm. He is Minnesota’s only ABA-recognized Board Certified DWI Defense Lawyer, a Minnesota State Bar Association Certified Criminal Law Specialist, a three-time Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year honoree, a designated Forensic Lawyer-Scientist by the American Chemical Society, and a nationally recognized teacher of DWI defense, forensic science, and courtroom strategy.
Chuck built Ramsay Law Firm on a belief that has defined his career for nearly three decades:
Every DWI case is winnable when the lawyer knows where to look, what to challenge, and how to expose the limits of the government’s proof.
Since 1995, Chuck has devoted his career to criminal defense, with a particular focus on DWI, DUI, implied consent litigation, driver’s license revocations, forfeitures, appellate work, and forensic-science challenges. He has tried more than 100 cases, obtained acquittals in cases ranging from DWI to First Degree Murder, and appeared in more than 100 appellate cases before the Minnesota Court of Appeals, Minnesota Supreme Court, and United States Supreme Court.
Chuck’s career is not simply a collection of case results and awards. It is a sustained campaign against assumptions: that machines are always right, that government laboratories always get it right, that field sobriety tests prove impairment, that a chemical-test number ends the case, and that a person accused of DWI has no meaningful defense.
Chuck has spent his career proving those assumptions wrong.
Education:
Bachelor of Arts, University of Wisonsin, Madison, WI.
Juris Doctor, William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, MN.
Graduate, Robert F. Borkenstein Course on Alcohol and Highway Safety at the University of Indiana
Founding Partner Since 1995
Selected Honors and Credentials:
- Minnesota’s only ABA-recognized Board Certified DWI Defense Lawyer
- Board Certified in DWI Defense Law by the National College for DUI Defense, recognized by the American Bar Association
- Minnesota State Bar Association Certified Criminal Law Specialist
- Three-time Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year honoree
- Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, American Chemical Society, Chemistry and the Law Division
- Faculty, National College for DUI Defense
- Minnesota Legal 250 honoree
- MSCJ Defender of Justice Award recipient
- Minnesota Super Lawyers honoree
- Graduate, Robert F. Borkenstein Course on Alcohol and Highway Safety
- Certified Intoxilyzer 5000 operator
- DataMaster DMT operator and supervisor certification
- Standardized Field Sobriety Testing certified
- SFST instructor certified
- NHTSA ARIDE trained
- DRE coursework completed
- U.S. Army Sergeant
- Distinguished Military Graduate, University of Wisconsin-Madison
A Career Built on Service, Discipline, and Preparation:
Chuck’s career began with service.
From 1985 to 1989, Chuck served as a Sergeant in the United States Army. After his honorable discharge, he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he became a Distinguished Military Graduate in 1992 and received a commission as an officer.
The discipline, preparation, endurance, and mission-first mindset he developed in the military remain central to his work as a criminal defense lawyer. Chuck approaches every case with the same habits that military service demanded: prepare completely, question assumptions, adapt under pressure, and refuse to quit.
Chuck graduated from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul in 1995 and founded Ramsay Law Firm that same year. Within a month, he won his first DWI case, a .4 partial-test-refusal case in December 1995.
That case changed the course of his career.
It showed him that DWI testing was not untouchable. The machines, procedures, assumptions, and legal shortcuts behind DWI prosecutions could be challenged, and beaten.
That lesson became the foundation of Ramsay Law Firm.
Cases That Changed the Fight:
Chuck’s career has been defined by cases that did more than help individual clients. His work has challenged the rules, methods, machines, assumptions, and constitutional shortcuts that shape how DWI cases are prosecuted across Minnesota.
Genin v. 1996 Mercury Marquis
In 2001, Chuck won his first case before the Minnesota Supreme Court in Genin v. 1996 Mercury Marquis. The case marked an early milestone in a career that would become increasingly focused on appellate litigation, constitutional challenges, and the intersection between criminal defense and civil consequences.
Joseph Wayne Hexom v. Minnesota
In 2016, Ramsay Law Firm secured a United States Supreme Court victory in Joseph Wayne Hexom v. Minnesota, No. 15-1052, a urine-test refusal case involving coerced consent and the constitutional limits of Minnesota’s DWI testing laws.
The Supreme Court granted the petition, vacated the Minnesota judgment, and remanded the case for further consideration in light of Birchfield v. North Dakota, the landmark decision addressing the constitutional limits of criminal penalties for refusing chemical testing in impaired-driving cases.
Intoxilyzer 5000EN Source-Code Litigation
Chuck helped lead the fight over the Intoxilyzer 5000EN source code, work that forced deeper scrutiny of Minnesota’s breath testing system and contributed to the state abandoning that machine.
He served as co-lead counsel on the Source Code Trial Team and helped expose software and scientific flaws that affected the reliability of breath test results. His work on the source-code litigation earned him recognition as a Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year in 2011.
Uncertainty of Measurement
In 2016, Chuck was again named a Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year, this time for his work on uncertainty of measurement in breath testing.
Measurement uncertainty may sound technical, but in a DWI case it can make all the difference. Chuck’s work helped force greater scrutiny of how the government reports, interprets, and relies on alcohol test results. He has helped lawyers, judges, and juries understand that a number is not the same thing as certainty.
Breath Sample Flaws and Software Problems
Chuck has repeatedly exposed problems in Minnesota’s forensic systems. He has challenged the reliability of breath testing machines, pushed for source-code disclosure, questioned government laboratory assumptions, and attacked testing procedures that appeared reliable on paper but failed under scrutiny.
He also co-authored a peer-reviewed article with forensic scientist Aaron Olson exposing a software flaw in Minnesota’s breath test machine. Their work showed that the machine could report a result even when the manufacturer’s own criteria indicated the breath sample should be treated as invalid.
In 2025, Chuck and the Ramsay Law Firm team were recognized as Minnesota Attorneys of the Year after exposing breath sample flaws involving the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Representative DWI and Forensic Challenges:
Chuck’s representative work includes challenges involving:
- Breath test source code
- Intoxilyzer 5000EN reliability
- DataMaster DMT reliability
- DataMaster source-code disclosure
- Uncertainty of measurement
- BCA breath sample flaws
- Breath test software errors
- Urine alcohol testing
- Coerced consent
- Blood sample collection
- BCA rounding issues
- Commercial driver’s license revocations
- Ignition interlock allegations
- Drugged-driving accusations
- DRE testimony
- Standardized Field Sobriety Test interpretation
- Contaminated or unreliable breath samples
- Constitutional limits on compelled chemical testing
- Faulty eyewitness identification
- False confessions
- A defendant’s right to present alternative suspects to a jury
Scientific Training Few Criminal Defense Lawyers Possess:
Chuck’s scientific training is rare among criminal defense lawyers.
In 2004, he attended the Robert F. Borkenstein Course on Alcohol and Highway Safety at Indiana University, one of the premier scientific programs on alcohol testing and traffic safety. After Chuck attended, the course was no longer made available to attorneys, which Chuck asserts was merely coincidental.
In 2009, he attended his first gas chromatography science course at Axion, deepening his understanding of blood and urine alcohol testing, analytical chemistry, and forensic measurement.
Chuck has been certified as an Intoxilyzer 5000 operator. He has been certified by the DataMaster DMT manufacturer as both an operator and supervisor. He is certified in Standardized Field Sobriety Testing and as an SFST instructor, and he has completed NHTSA ARIDE training and DRE coursework.
He has studied breath testing, blood testing, urine testing, gas chromatography, forensic measurement, alcohol pharmacology, and the scientific limits of impairment evidence.
In 2015, the American Chemical Society’s Chemistry and the Law Division designated Chuck a Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, an honor reserved for attorneys who complete advanced scientific training in forensic alcohol analysis.
Teaching Other Lawyers How to Fight DWI Cases:
Chuck is not only a student of forensic science and criminal defense. He is a teacher of it.
In 2015, Chuck was named to the faculty of the National College for DUI Defense, where he began teaching nationally recognized trial lawyers how to understand chemical testing and use forensic science in court.
He has taught lawyers through the National College for DUI Defense, Minnesota CLE, the Minnesota Society for Criminal Justice, and other criminal defense organizations. His CLE teaching has covered breath, blood, and urine testing; DataMaster source-code challenges; uncertainty of measurement; DWI appellate updates; forensic reliability; chemical-test litigation; Standardized Field Sobriety Tests; motion practice; constitutional challenges; lawyer wellness; and the practical judgment needed to recognize when a DWI case requires deeper scientific, legal, or strategic support.
His programs have included:
- DWI A to Z: Breath, Blood, and Urine Testing
- DWI Update: Past Trends, Current Battles, Future Fights
- Preserving Important DWI Challenges
- Successful DataMaster Source Code Challenges
- Chemical testing and courtroom science
- Breath, blood, and urine testing litigation
- Lawyer wellness and recognizing when a case requires deeper support
Chuck’s teaching reflects the same approach that defines his courtroom work: master the science, challenge the assumptions, expose what the government cannot prove, and give other defense lawyers the tools to fight harder for their clients.
Board Certification and Professional Recognition:
Chuck’s credentials reflect decades of focused work in criminal defense, DWI defense, appellate litigation, and forensic science.
In 2018, Chuck became a Minnesota State Bar Association Certified Criminal Law Specialist. In 2023, he became Board Certified in DWI Defense Law by the National College for DUI Defense, a certification recognized by the American Bar Association.
He is Minnesota’s only ABA-recognized Board Certified DWI Defense Lawyer, a distinction that reflects his deep experience, specialized training, and national standing in DWI defense, even though the MSBA does not recognize this specialty certification.
Chuck has also been selected to Minnesota Super Lawyers, recognized among Minnesota’s top criminal defense lawyers, named a Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year three times, designated a Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, and recognized in the Minnesota Legal 250 as one of the state’s influential attorneys.
In 2026, he also received the MSCJ Defender of Justice Award at the Minnesota Society for Criminal Justice’s Annual DWI Seminar.
Endurance Inside and Outside the Courtroom:
Outside the courtroom, Chuck brings the same discipline to endurance sports that he brings to criminal defense.
He began running marathons in 2011 and has completed 22 marathons to date. In 2017, he completed his first Ironman in Madison. In 2021, he completed his second Ironman, also in Madison. In 2023, he qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon. He is now preparing for his third Ironman in 2027.
For Chuck, endurance is not separate from the work. It is part of the same mindset:
Prepare harder.
Go deeper.
Keep moving when others stop.
Find the weakness in the system.
Finish the race.
That is how Chuck Ramsay defends DWI cases. That is how he built Ramsay Law Firm. And that is why clients, lawyers, and experts across Minnesota look to him when the stakes are highest.