West, James M.

Kathleen V. Wells is a graduate of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts and Albany Law School. Concentrating primarily in criminal defense work, she has successfully defended clients at trial, suppression hearings, Superintendant Hearings, DMV administrative hearings and on appeal.

Ms. Wells has spoken at Continuing Legal Education seminars about DWI Law and Jury Selection. She also handles name change petitions and adoptions. She finds adoptions to be a very rewarding area of the law.

A devoted student of the law, Ms. Wells never leaves a stone unturned when handling a case. Her thorough attention to detail has not only brought her litigation and motion practice success, but also a number of appellate victories.

Early this year, Ms. Wells successfully argued an appeal before New York State’s highest court - The Court of Appeals. Her victory in the Court of Appeals not only resulted in the reversal of her client's DWAI conviction, but also changed New York Law relative to DUI arrests. This was not Ms. Wells' first appearance before the Court of Appeals, Ms. Wells has appeared before. This is notable given that the Court of Appeals only agrees to hear a select few cases.

Recently, Ms. Wells also won two separate cases in the Appellate Term of the Second Department for the 9th and 10th Judicial Districts. In each case, the trial courts had suppressed evidence to be used against her clients. The Orange County District Attorney's Office appealed both suppression decisions, but Ms. Wells? appellate arguments prevailed and preserved each client's win in the courts below.

In July of 2011, Kathleen's motion work resulted in precluding from evidence more than 40 bad acts that the Orange County District Attorney's Office sought to introduce against a client facing murder charges.

Ms. Wells' leave application in a felony attempted sex crimes case was granted by the Court of Appeals. This is a notable accomplishment given that very few criminal leave applications are granted by the judges of the Court of Appeals. The percentage of leave grants has hovered around 2% in the last few years.

Ms. Wells' work has also resulted in:

• The reversal of a client's youthful offender adjudications for Sexual Misconduct, Forcible Touching and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
• The reversal and dismissal of a client's DWI and Leaving the Scene of a Personal Injury Accident convictions because of the insufficiency of the evidence. (Reversals for insufficient evidence are extremely rare!)
• The reversal and dismissal of a client's DWI 1192(2) conviction due to insufficiency of the evidence.
• The reduction of a Level Three sex offender's registration status to a Level Two.
• The vacating of a client's jail sentence imposed because of his conviction for speeding 102 miles per hour in a 65 mile per hour zone.
• The reversal of a client's Integrated Domestic Violence Court conviction of Harassment in the 2nd Degree.
• The suppression of a chemical test result because the police wrongly interfered with a client's telephone consultation with his attorney.
• The vacating of a client's prior DWAI conviction because he did not receive effective assistance of counsel in that case.
• The suppression of evidence because a DWI check point stop did not comply with constitutional requirements.
• The reversal of a DWAI conviction and dismissal of the charge because the prosecution filed an improper accusatory instrument.

Whether in the trial or appellate courts, Kathleen Wells' skills, dedication to details and experience maximize a client's chance of success.