Successful
Criminal
& DUI Defense

A repeated Super Lawyers® honoree, three time recipient of the Martin Hanson Advocate Prize (a statewide honor bestowed upon Chris for numerous homicide acquittals), with a continuous "AV" rating (Eminent Lawyer by peer-review), and one of a handful of Dane County attorneys to have been repeatedly named Madison's Best Criminal Defense Lawyers, Attorney Chris Van Wagner is honored by the awards, if not a bit embarrassed by the notoriety.

One of 11 children born to a middle-class Irish Catholic New Jersey couple, Chris attributes his preparation for law to his topnotch education while attending an Ivy League law school (Cornell Law School, 1981, Law Review Editor), his boardroom manners to years at a world-renowned Illinois corporate law firm (Mayer Brown, LaSalle Street), his ingrained courtroom sense and sound jury trial skills to years trying more than 50 felony trials to verdict as a state prosecutor (Trenton, New Jersey) and numerous federal conspiracy cases to verdict as a federal prosecutor (Madison, Wisconsin). Chris has also won several very high profile jury trial, including many murder and sexual assault cases, which he attributes to approaching each case professionally and working hard to develop winning legal strategies drawn from years of experience and skills developed defending cases in both the rural and urban areas.

Attorney Van Wagner is frequently sought out by both experienced criminal defense lawyers and new lawyers learning to build winning defense strategies for his keen insights and priceless guidance drawn from years of experience trying felony cases ranging from sexual assault to murder. He is a regular guest speak at seminars throughout the state, often lecturing on the importance of creative defense strategies, advocacy for clients, ethics in law and defending the entire case, particularly when very high profile.

While you'll often see Attorney Christopher T. Van Wagner in interviews on the 6 o'clock news televised across the ABC or NBC networks, or on such programs as Court-TV, Good Morning America or the Dan Abrams Show, it isn't for the publicity that he explains the failure of a district attorney to file charges in a homicide case, or the lack of law to support a prosecutor's denial to release a victim's body to her parents, but rather to help people understand the law, their rights and the reasons why they must seek to protect themselves and their constitutional rights in any criminal case.

He would know how the system can work against a person; he is a former Federal prosecutor (Madison, Wisconsin) and state prosecutor (New Jersey, Wisconsin) who has for the past nearly two decades devoted his legal career to defending people accused of criminal offenses winning acquittals when other lawyers thought the case was lost. His record of trial wins, dismissals and tremendously reduced charges explicitly evidences his commitment to his clients and willingness to work long and hard drawing upon his many years of litigation experience to formulate compelling indisputable legal arguments countering the prosecutor at every turn. Arguments that have not lost a sexual assault of a child jury trial since focusing on these particularly difficult cases in 97, freed people falsely accused of crimes and saw that justice was served properly in numerous murder trials.

Christopher T. Van Wagner:::Tracey A. Wood:::Van Wagner & Wood:::Criminal Defense:::Drunk Driving Defense:::Contact

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