Approach/Philosophy

Ramsay Law Firm, Where "Every DWI Case Is Winnable."

It takes a particular type of person to chose criminal defense as a profession. You must be passionate about helping people, getting to know them and understanding their problems. You need to be creative, to come up with unique, case-specific defenses that will either lead to a direct dismissal of the charges or put enough pressure on the prosecutor to arrange a good dea. You also need to be a bit of a show-off, able to turn "the flash" on and off depending on whether your audiance is a jury, a judge, or a prosecutor. 

Passion, creativity, showmanship -- these are all the hallmarks of a good criminal defense attorney. We have more passion, more creativity, and more attitude than any other attorney in Minnesota. So why did we decide to limit ourselves strictly to DWI defense (with rare exceptions, of course)?

We're a DWI defense firm, instead of a generic criminal defense firm that dabbles in DWI, for two very important reasons: The first is the challenge of fighting a DWI case. Nothing makes life more interesting than accepting challenges. Few types of crimes involve more constitutional protections than a DWI case; from the initial stop, through the arrest process, testing decision, and stationhouse questioning, there are hundreds of cases applying the protections of the constitution. There are scientific challenges that can be raised to blood, breath, and urine tests. When you understand gas chromotography/mass spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, fuel cell technology, and EtG testing as well as we do (and trust us, nobody knows more about scientific defenses to DWI than we do), you open so many doors for winning a case. There are statutory challenges to DWI, loopholes and contradictions in our 40+ page DWI law (it has an entire section of the statute books devoted to it) that provide many additional opportunities to succeed.

But DWI defense isn't just intellectually exciting for us. The second reason why we limit ourselves to mostly DWI defense, and the biggest one, is more emotional. In our experience, the vast majority of DWI offenders are really good people, who may have made a mistake. They received some bad news, or were celebrating good news, and perhaps had too much to drink. Maybe they didn't feel the effects of what they drank but were still over the legal limit. Maybe they did feel the effects, or didn't think it was too bad. Maybe they drove out of necessity, or fear, frustration. The variations in a DWI case are nearly endless. But one thing holds true: when we talk to most of our clients for the first time, they almost always regret what happened, while still fearing what types of punishment are yet to come.

That's why we specialize in defending DWI cases. When we win a case (and we win a lot), we like to be able to go to sleep at night knowing that we helped a good person out of a very tough situation.

DWI cases are definately tough situations. The punishments for a DWI can be very severe; from mandatory jail, to cancellation of your driver's license, to forfeiture of your vehicle, the State treats DWI cases as an opportunity to go after your liberty and your property. Loss of license can result in loss of your livelihood; going to jail can be humiliating and can limit future employment opportunities. The costs of a DWI, financially and spiritually, can quickly become devastating. Sometimes, that devastation is all out of proportion to what actually happened.

We've dedicated our careers to helping good people get past the consequences of a DWI conviction. We lose sleep over the outcome of your DWI case so that you don't have to. Our job, above all else, is to help you get back to your life with as little disruption as possible. At the end of the day, we put all our effort into our clients' cases.

You won't find another law firm in Minnesota like Ramsay Law Firm, at least not when it comes to DWI defense. We've been doing what we do for decades, and intend on continuing to do it for decades more. If you've been charged with a DWI, come join our family -- we've been waiting for you.