CHARLES A. RAMSAY "Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success." -- Dale Carnegie  Charles Ramsay, a founding partner of the firm, practices primarily in the area of criminal defense and civil forfeitures. He has obtained acquittals in nearly every type of case from DWI to murder. He prides himself on being on the cutting edge of criminal defense. He helped pioneer a number of defenses in Minnesota, including faulty eyewitness identification, false confessions and the right of a defendant to present alternative suspects to a jury. In 2006, Ramsay testified in Court about the shortcomings of breath testing devices such as the Intoxilyzer 5000.
An effective appellate lawyer, Chuck successfully litigated Genin v. 1996 Mercury Marquis before the Minnesota Supreme Court, where the court held that a vehicle owner who prevails in a DWI forfeiture action need not pay storage fees incurred during the pendency of a case. In 2004, he prevailed before the Court of Appeals in State v. Bergh. This case limits prosecutors’ ability to use out of state DWI convictions and license revocations to enhance subsequent DWI charges. In yet another case that year, Chuck represented the appellant in State v. Blom, before the Minnesota Supreme Court. In other notable appellate victories, the Minnesota Court of Appeals held that a police officer may not stop a driver merely for swerving within his own lane of traffic in State v. Hugger. In State v. Bergerson the Minnesota Court of Appeals recognized that a police office may not purge the taint of an illegal stop of a motor vehicle when the driver attempts to flee after the officer initiates a traffic stop. Most recently Ramsay prevailed in State v. Sickman, where he convinced the Minnesota Court of Appeals to reverse the district trial court and grant his client a new trial. It agreed with Ramsay that the law on which the Sherburne County prosecutor relied was unconstitutional as a violation of the confrontation cause.
Ramsay is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison and of William Mitchell College of Law. He is also graduate of the prestigious Robert F. Borkenstein Course on Alcohol and Highway Safety: Testing Research and Litigation at the University of Indiana. In 2007, he became a graduate of the National DWI College of DWI Defense course at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He is a Certified Intoxilyzer 5000 operator, the breath testing machine used in Minnesota. Chuck is a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education for lawyers in the area of DWI. He is a member of the Minnesota Society for Criminal Justice (MSCJ)– a prestigious group of attorneys limited in number to 50 of the top criminal defense attorneys in the state. The MSCJ began conducting national DWI seminars 25 years ago where the top attorneys in the country would speak about emerging trends. Chuck is also an active member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Chuck also regularly serves as a faculty member at continuing education classes for health care professionals where he lectures on the topics of boundaries and ethics, and represents various professionals before their licensing boards and in the legal system.
In each of the last eight years, Chuck has been named Super Lawyer® by Minnesota Law & Politics, Twin Cities Business Monthly and Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine. This honor is bestowed upon the top 5% of Minnesota lawyers as selected by their peers. In the last two years he was among the top 40 of all the criminal defense lawyers in Minnesota.
A recent letter from one of Mr. Ramsay's clients sums up his and his staff's personal approach to their representation:
"Hi Chuck:
I want to thank you for what you and your firm have done for me. You guys were the only ones who believed in me. I can' t say enough -- thanks and gratitude for your support. I want to thank (your assistants) Kim Buche for listening to me because I like to rattle on sometimes and Laura Olsen for talking to me and letting me know that every thing is going to be okay. And you Chuck -- you never doubted me once. God has put you on this earth so that innocent go free. The evil that is out there ... you guys fight because God is on your side.
Thank you very much yours truly,
Scott Owens " Chuck lives in New Brighton with his wife, Becky, and two children, Nicholas and Madison. He enjoys riding his Harley and boating on the St. Croix with his family on the “Abuse of Discretion.”
For a List of Charles Ramsay's recent successes click here!
If you would like to contact Mr. Ramsay, please feel free to send him an email or call our main office at (651) 604-0000.
|
