I’m a criminal defense lawyer licensed in Nevada and California. My office is on Kingsbury Grade in Stateline, and my practice is built around the courts of Douglas County: the Tahoe Justice Court in Stateline, the East Fork Justice Court in Minden, and the Ninth Judicial District Court. I also handle cases in the Incline Village–Crystal Bay Justice Court, Carson City, Reno, and Lyon County when a client’s case lands there.
Being licensed in both states matters in Tahoe, where the state line runs through town. I can handle the Nevada case and tell you, in the same conversation, what it does to your California license, your job, or a later California charge.
What I do
Criminal defense in Nevada and California courts. DUI, first offense through felony, and the DMV case that comes with it in either state. Domestic violence. Battery and assault, including felony assaults. Serious felonies, including sex offenses and homicide. Drug possession, sales, and trafficking. Resisting and obstructing. Theft, shoplifting, and burglary. Firearms charges. Probation violations. Bail and release from custody. Each of those has its own page on this site, written at the level of detail I would want if it were my case.
How I think about a criminal case
The default rule in this country is that the government leaves you alone. A traffic stop, a detention on the shoulder, a search of your car or your hotel room, an arrest, a breath test, a blood draw: each one is a separate intrusion, and the government has to justify each one under the Fourth Amendment and under Nevada statute before it gets to the next. Then, in court, the State has to prove every element of the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. Nobody has to prove innocence.
That is not a loophole and it is not a technicality. It is the structure of the system, written down by people who had lived under a government that did not have to justify itself. Defending a criminal case means holding the government to its obligations, one by one, in order: was the stop lawful, did the detention last longer than the law allows, was there probable cause, was the test done the way the statute requires, was the warrant valid, does the evidence prove what the complaint says it proves. Most of what changes the outcome of a case is found in that sequence, in the video and the records, in the first weeks.
The same rule has a second half. The government also has to follow the law in how it sentences, how it counts priors, how it revokes a license, and how it treats a person who lives far from the courthouse. Nevada’s own statutes let a DUI course and evaluation be completed in the state where you live and let a DMV hearing be held by video. Part of the work is making sure those statutes are actually applied.
Why Stateline
My office is on Kingsbury Grade in Stateline. A lawyer whose office is in the same town as the courthouse can meet a client at the jail or the courthouse without a two-hour drive.
Background
- Licensed to practice law in Nevada (Bar No. 16698) and California (Bar No. 356241).
How I work with clients
- The fee is flat and agreed in writing before any work begins. See Hiring FitzGerald Law.
- Clients who live outside Nevada are told at the start which dates will need them in court, and my office makes the Zoom arrangements where the court allows. See Arrested in Nevada, Living Somewhere Else.
- Evidence requests and preservation letters go out before the first court date.
- Every development is reported in writing.
Videos
I make long-form videos explaining Nevada and California criminal law for people who are not lawyers: what the government has to prove on a charge, what your rights are during a DUI stop, and what happens after an arrest in South Lake Tahoe. They are on YouTube and Instagram at FitzDefense.
If you have a case in Stateline or anywhere in Douglas County, hire me now, and I’ll get to work. Call FitzGerald Law.
