Attorney Tracey A. Wood
Van Wagner & Wood, S.C., Madison WI
Women in the Law 2009
Wisconsin Law Journal, Milwaukee WI
Effective & Effecient Drunk Driving Defense
As a single mother of two young children who live very active lives and a partner at the successful criminal defense firm of Van Wagner & Wood, Attorney Tracey A. Wood has been defining "effective and efficient" since graduating from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
In the largest military theft case ever charged in Wisconsin, Tracey won one of two acquittals. That infamous case earned her a congratulatory nod from Jay Leno. Her continued fame however, according to attorneys across the United States, has grown out of her willingness to mentor other lawyers and lecture at national seminars on the technical aspects of sobriety tests, blood results, breathalyzers and preparing effective defenses.
An attorney really needs to know the medical science of alcohol and tests that come into play during drunk driving defenses.
Tracey aspired to attend medical school in her youth, and subsequently majored in Psychology. Her education and understanding of the medical science of blood tests, breath tests and blood draw procedures has come to bear in many of the more than 2,000 drunk driving cases she has handled.
Drunk driving cases are likely one of the toughest areas of criminal defense work. People are often found guilty, and sometimes don't know that they have a right to plead not guilty to the charges. Their rights need to be protected just as much as any person's rights who has been accused of any other crime, and protecting those rights in illegal searches and seizures, contaminated evidence and charges for a higher drunk driving offense, to name a few, are what Tracey focuses on at Van Wagner & Wood. She also handles appeals, and wrote "Challenging Prior Under Influence Convictions" to help other lawyers understand the defects in many cases within the initial charges.
“There is a sense that everybody looks down on criminal defendants and I would say drunk driving is at the bottom,” Wood said. “But someone needs to make sure their rights are defended and I feel good about that.”
Attorney Tracey Wood is president of Wisconsin's largest criminal defense association, the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a regent to the National College for DUI Defense and past president of the Dane County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.
On February 13, 2006, Attorney Wood was one of twenty-one female attorneys in Wisconsin to be honored by the Wisconsin Law Journal as the top Women In The Law.
For more information, please visit Wisconsin Law Journal.
