Ramsay Law Firm, PLLC

06/12/2026

Big thanks to everyone who signed up for the 2026 DWI Boot Camp.

This event sold out in less than a day, even after we expanded capacity to 30 attorneys. That kind of response says a lot about the criminal defense bar.

It’s encouraging to see defense lawyers invest their own time and money to become better advocates for their current and future clients.

Chuck is honored to be part of this outstanding lineup alongside Aaron Olson and Anthony Palacios. Daniel Koewler will be involved as well, tasked with putting the “control” in the controlled drinking session.

We have a great program planned, and we’re grateful for the incredible response.

Thank you to everyone who registered. We can’t wait to get started.

06/12/2026

Last Friday, at the annual MSCJ DWI Defense seminar, I received one of the most meaningful honors of my career: the Minnesota Society for Criminal Justice’s Defender of Justice Award.

MSCJ does not give this award every year. Previous recipients are giants in the criminal defense community and to be included among them is surreal.

Criminal defense is not always easy work. It is not always popular work. But it is necessary work.

Over the years, I have had the privilege of standing beside people during some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Every case reminds me why constitutional rights, due process, and the presumption of innocence matter.

As a veteran, I learned early that liberty is not something we can take for granted. As a criminal defense attorney, I have spent my career working to make sure those principles remain meaningful for every person who enters a courtroom.

No one receives an honor like this alone. I am grateful to the mentors who taught me, the colleagues who challenged me, experts who helped uncover the truth, and the outstanding team at Ramsay Law Firm who make our work possible every day.

Most of all, I am grateful to my wife, Joanie. She has supported me through the long hours, late nights, trial preparation, victories, disappointments, and everything in between. Her love, patience, encouragement, and unwavering support have made this journey possible. This recognition belongs as much to her as it does to me.

I am especially grateful to my dear friend and colleague Sharon Osborn, who worked tirelessly on the seminar, the award presentation, and the video. Thank you also to Jud Nichols for the video and to everyone who appeared in it and shared such generous words. I know there are others who helped behind the scenes, including some I may not even know about. Please know how grateful I am.

Thank you to MSCJ for this tremendous honor.

I am proud to share this recognition with the entire Ramsay Law Firm team.

The work continues.

Charles A. Ramsay has received the Defender of Justice Award at the Minnesota Society for Criminal Justice’s 2026 Annual DWI Seminar.

06/11/2026

Well, that escalated quickly.

We opened registration for DWI Boot Camp this morning.

As of this post, 18 of the 25 seats are already taken.

Only 7 seats remain.

This is a one day, high intensity training for attorneys who defend DWI cases and want to get better at attacking the evidence that actually shows up in court: SFSTs, officer opinion testimony, toxicology, and claims of impairment.

This is not a passive CLE.

You will learn how to separate signs of alcohol consumption from signs of actual impairment, expose common SFST errors, cross examine officers on what roadside tests can and cannot prove.

We’ll also include a wet lab/live drinking session, real courtroom case studies, and hands on direct and cross-examination practice.

And because this training falls on Veterans Day, it feels fitting to spend the day with lawyers who stand between people and the government when the government brings its full weight against them.

DWI Boot Camp
Wednesday, November 11, 2026
Jimmy’s Event Center, Vadnais Heights
7 CLE Credits
Only 25 seats
$799

Instructors: Aaron Olson, Anthony Palacios, and Chuck Ramsay.

Register here: shorturl.at/jFknA

When the last 7 seats are gone, registration closes.

06/09/2026

The State calls it science. Daniel Koewler showed lawyers where it breaks.

At this year’s annual DWI CLE, Ramsay Law Firm partner, Dan Koewler, gave Minnesota defense lawyers a peek at our playbook for attacking breath tests: exposing the limits of the science, the weak points in the machine, and the government failures that too often go unchallenged.

More than 150 lawyers packed the room, with many more joining online, for what has become the premier DWI defense seminar in Minnesota.

Dan pulled back the curtain on the State’s “magic machine” and took lawyers straight into the real battlegrounds of breath test litigation: source code, instrument history, measurement uncertainty, bias, interfering substances, observation periods, and invalid samples.

This is where cases are won.

The Minnesota Society for Criminal Justice brings together criminal defense lawyers who refuse to accept the government’s evidence at face value. We test it. We challenge it. We expose its weaknesses.

Because when the government brings a machine into court, the defense better know how to take it apart.

06/09/2026

We’re seeing more of this.

A federal jury in Iowa has sided with a young man who was pulled over, subjected to field sobriety tests, and detained by police for driving under the influence despite blowing a 0.00 on a ... Read mo...

06/01/2026

Memorial Day is behind us, and the Fourth of July is coming up.

This is the time of year when we talk a lot about honoring veterans. At Ramsay Law Firm, we believe that means more than saying “thank you for your service.”

Sometimes it means standing next to a veteran in court.

Minnesota’s Veterans Restorative Justice Act gives qualifying veterans a chance to address the real issues behind a criminal charge, including PTSD, substance abuse, trauma, anxiety, depression, or other mental health conditions connected to military service.

We recently handled a DWI case involving a veteran whose struggles with alcohol, anxiety, depression, and trauma were tied to his military service.

The goal was not to avoid accountability.

The goal was meaningful accountability: treatment, probation, supervision, and the chance to earn a dismissal without a conviction.

That matters.

A conviction can follow a person for years. For veterans willing to do the work, the law provides a path that recognizes both the seriousness of the charge and the reality of what many service members bring home.

We are honored to represent veterans in criminal court. They defended our freedoms. When they need help, we should be prepared to fight for theirs.

If you, a family member, or a close friend is a veteran facing criminal charges in Minnesota, call Ramsay Law Firm. Even if you are not sure whether the Veterans Restorative Justice Act applies, we may be able to help protect your future.

Learn more here:

We are honored to represent veterans in criminal court—men and women who have sacrificed to uphold our Constitution, protect our safety, and defend our freedoms. Through the Minnesota Veterans Restorative Justice Act (“Act”), many have secured second chances, receiving stays of adjudication th...

05/29/2026

A new peer-reviewed paper by Aaron Olson may become very important in Minnesota DWI litigation very soon.

The paper addresses a question that most people, including many lawyers and judges, have probably never considered:

Can GERD related coughing affect a breath alcohol test?

GERD and chronic cough are often connected. In some people, reflux-related microaspiration can bring small amounts of gastric contents into the throat, airway, or breath pathway. If that person has consumed alcohol, those gastric contents may contain ethanol.

That raises a serious forensic question: could coughing near the time of a breath test contaminate the sample?

Aaron’s paper discusses two case reports involving GERD related symptoms, coughing near the time of breath testing, and breath test expirograms with negative slopes consistent with mouth alcohol contamination. In plain English, the breath-test data itself showed signs that something other than deep lung breath may have affected the result.

Why does this matter now?

We expect the Minnesota Supreme Court to issue a critically important decision that could change what the State must prove before a breath test can be admitted into evidence. The Court requested additional amicus briefing after oral argument, and a significant amount of time has passed since those submissions. That suggests the Court may be preparing a decision with real consequences.

If the ruling requires the government to prove that breath testing was done properly, officers may have to follow their training, and the State may have to prove it.

That includes the observation period.

It may also include GERD, coughing, regurgitation, burping, throat clearing, and other medical or physiological issues that can affect whether a breath sample is reliable.

For years, breath tests have often been treated like simple numbers on a page. But forensic science is never that simple. The full record matters: medical history, video, officer observations, the observation period, testing procedure, and the expirogram data.

Aaron Olson’s paper may be coming at exactly the right time.

Breath testing is only reliable when the sample is reliable.

Forensic breath alcohol testing depends on contamination-free breath sampling. This case study describes two subjects with a history of gastro-oesophageal reflu...

05/28/2026

🚨 BREAKING NEWS! 🚨

Yesterday, we learned that Stearns County is no longer using breath testing in DWI cases.

Why? Breath test results are being thrown out of court because the government refuses to turn over the source code for the breath test machine.

Police are still enforcing DWI laws, but they are now using blood and urine tests instead of breath tests.

We’ll keep you posted as this develops.

05/27/2026

Big win for a Minnesota driver trapped in the ignition interlock extension cycle.

Our client was facing months of additional ignition interlock time because of alleged missed rolling retests.

For many drivers, ignition interlock extensions are not a minor inconvenience. They can mean years of added costs, years of restricted driving, years of stress, and years of living one alleged violation away from starting over again.

And too often, those extensions are based on things that do not prove impaired driving.

False positives.
Equipment problems.
Missed rolling recalls.
Alleged violations that do not tell the whole story.

This case was different because we fought back.

Ramsay Law Firm attorney Daniel Koewler challenged the Commissioner’s decision to extend our client’s revocation period, arguing that the extension was arbitrary, unreasonable, and not legally justified. Our paralegal, Kim, was instrumental in helping pull this victory together.

The court granted our client’s petition.

Ignition interlock is supposed to be a path back to lawful driving. It should not become a never-ending punishment machine.

When the State tries to add years to someone’s interlock obligation based on unfair or unreliable allegations, drivers have the right to challenge it.

We are proud to have helped this client protect their license, their livelihood, and their future.

05/27/2026

“I believe you brought some honor back to your profession.”

Those words mean more to us than we can adequately express.

We are tremendously grateful for this thoughtful thank you card from a former client after we got his driver’s license reinstated and the criminal charges against him dismissed.

At Ramsay Law Firm, we know every case involves more than police reports, court dates, and legal arguments. Behind every case is a real person facing stress, uncertainty, and fear about what comes next.

That is why we take pride not only in fighting for the best possible result, but also in making sure our clients feel heard, respected, and supported every step of the way.

Thank you, Timothy, for your kind words and your trust in our team. Messages like this, and 5-star reviews from the people we serve, mean the world to us.

They remind us why we do this work.

Congratulations, Caleb and Shelley, on your outstanding efforts for this and every client.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️