Dane Defense
About House Law
Statewide Criminal Defense and Appelate Practice
J. Steven House
Attorney J. Steven House represents clients accused of crimes or traffic violations throughout Wisconsin. He graduated magna cum laude, from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1999 and began legal practice with the Knox County Public Defender's Community Law Office in Knoxville, Tennessee where he worked in the Misdemeanor, Felony, DUI and Trial divisions as well as handling appeals. In 2006 Steven began private practice in Wisconsin while still handling appellate matters in Tennessee.
Focus on Impaired Driving
Steven House handled drunk driving cases exclusively for several years as well as working for small law firms which focused on impaired driving defense. This intensive focus on impaired driving offenses provided the experience necessary to obtain numerous dismissals, reductions and amendments of drunk driving charges to lower level offenses. During this time he became certified to administer the nationally standardized field sobriety tests and became familiar the numerous factors that can lead to false results from those as well as blood alcohol tests.
Trial and Appellate Success
As a private attorney, Steven House persuaded a state supreme court to overturn a jury verdict in the first case nationally to hold that a pellet gun did not constitute a deadly weapon. This appellate success was followed by successfully petitioning the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2010 to review the decision of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in State vs. Janet A. Conner, 2009 WI App 143, challenging the jury instructions as well as the trial and appellate courts' interpretation of the aggravated stalking law.
Recent appellate successes include overturning the conviction of a client on three counts of distributing a schedule 2 narcotic to a police informant, obtaining a new trial in Jefferson County, suppression of evidence obtained by search warrant in the appeal of a burglary conviction in Rock County, and obtaining a new trial and eventual dismissal in a case charging child sex offenses based upon the denial of the right to present a defense at the initial trial.