Minnesota DWI Defense Blog

On October 4, we held two arguments before the Minnesota Supreme Court, addressing the impact that Minnesota's unconstitutional Implied Consent Law will have on the drivers who either refused to submit to blood or urine tests, or agreed to those tests after being threatened with the crime of refusal. We posted a video of the first oral argument earlier -- here's the second one. Read More

Today the Minnesota Supreme Court released a decision that may not have too broad of an overall impact, but is nevertheless interesting. At issue is a narrow set of DWI cases involving "huffing while driving," and whether or not Minnesota's DWI laws currently prohibit the practice. Today the Court decided that issue. Read More

While Tom Petty has moved on to a better place (and may he rest in peace) his lyrics are going to be with us forever. That includes the old gem "The Waiting Is The Hardest Part." And he was right . . . even if he wasn't exactly talking about "waiting" for a Supreme Court decision. Read More

It's an argument that is picking up steam: whether Minnesota's practice of seizing vehicles involved in DWI cases for forfeiture is constitutional. We recently convinced a district court judge to return our client's forfeited vehicle, based on the argument that the whole statute violates the Due Process clause of our Constitution. Because it does. Read More

So, we promised part two of our analysis of the new DWI law changes that in coming into effect in Minnesota on July 1 . . . two weeks ago. Sorry about that, things got busy. But "busy" means "way more blog material" so hopefully we'll have some more fun stuff for you in the upcoming weeks. But for now, here's part 2! Read More

Governor Mark Dayton just signed into law some long-awaited changes to Minnesota's DWI laws. The changes are rather sweeping -- some of them are designed to correct the portions of the law that were struck down as unconstitutional in 2016, while others add some additional protections and procedural safeguards to some outdated portions of the law. We'll break down these changes for you and explain what they mean for the future. Read More

A very important case before the Minnesota Supreme Court has just taken an unusual turn. The case we're talking about is State v. Phillips; the important issue in the case is the effect of Minnesota's unconstitutional Implied Consent Advisory on cases where drivers submitted to warrantless blood and urine tests. The unusual turn? Ms. Phillips, the person who appealed her conviction, just passed away. Read More

On Wednesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court issued a troubling decision that transformed what appeared, on its face, to be a fourth degree, misdemeanor DWI into a felony-level offense. The result was that one man will spend 48 months in prison instead of (perhaps) one weekend in jail. That's an expensive lesson that can largely be blamed on our Legislature. Read More

DWI Forfeiture laws -- laws that allow the State to seize private property for profit -- cause a lot of financial and emotional distress for those who not only have to deal with the process of being arrested, but who then have to deal with the consequences of losing their vehicle as well. Coming soon, it will be a little harder for the State to seize vehicles used during DWI offenses . . . and that's a good thing. Read More

Both the United States Supreme Court and the Minnesota Supreme Court concluded that the cornerstone of Minnesota's DWI laws -- our DWI Test Refusal laws -- are unconstitutional. Those rulings left one particular question unanswered: how to deal with all of the driver who were told (and are still being told) that "refusal to take a test is a crime." That question is set to be answered soon. Read More

It's an issue we've been talking about for months, and now, a Minnesota judge has taken action. Read More

2016 has been quite the year for Ramsay Law Firm and Minnesota's DWI laws in general. It's not every year a case is heard by the United States Supreme Court that drastically changes our laws and the laws across the country. This is not being melodramatic, the events of the past year are unique and their affects will be felt, and litigated about, for years to come. Below are the nine most notable events of 2016: Read More

This morning our office won its third case at the Minnesota Court of Appeals in a row! Here is the opinion. Read More

The Ramsay Law Firm--specifically Daniel Koewler-- has once again made the news! This time it was to discuss our recent victory at the Minnesota Court of Appeals (Janssen v. Read More