Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner Taught Police How to Prepare DUI Cases—Then Built a Career Challenging Them

A breath-test reading of 0.19 percent can make a driving-under-the-influence prosecution feel inevitable. In one of Richard Wagner’s cases, officers also described speeding, a near collision, signs of intoxication, and failed field-sobriety tests. Yet the jury acquitted his client of every charge, and the California Department of Motor Vehicles set aside the license suspension. It was not a victory built on ignoring difficult evidence. It came from understanding how that evidence should have been gathered, tested, and presented—and persuading jurors that the government had not proved its case.

That understanding began on the other side of the courtroom. Wagner spent two years as a Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney, prosecuting thousands of criminal matters involving impaired driving, domestic violence, assault, firearms, and other offenses. He did more than take cases to court. He instructed members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Impaired Driver Apprehension Program on case preparation and courtroom testimony. When he entered private defense in 2002, he brought direct knowledge of how police and prosecutors assemble a case—and where their conclusions may fail under careful examination.

Wagner later completed the same standardized field-sobriety-testing course developed for law enforcement by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. That training matters because a roadside test can look decisive in a police report while leaving unanswered questions about the officer’s instructions, the testing conditions, or whether the person’s performance truly demonstrated impairment.

Since 2009, Wagner has led The Law Office of Richard Wagner, A Professional Corporation. The practice is built around direct responsibility: the firm states that he personally handles every case from the initial consultation through its resolution. For someone facing criminal charges and the possible loss of a driver’s license, that means the attorney identifying weaknesses in the evidence is also the attorney responsible for acting on them.

His reported outcomes show what close scrutiny can change. When a client was accused of impaired driving and hit-and-run after breath tests between 0.16 and 0.17 percent, prosecutors declined to file charges, the license suspension was overturned, and the arrest records were sealed. In another matter involving an injury, breath tests of 0.18 percent, and blood tests of 0.17 percent, he won the administrative license hearing, secured reductions from felonies to misdemeanors, and obtained a resolution with no jail. He also persuaded the state to set aside a two-year license revocation for a client accused of a second offense and refusing chemical testing.

Wagner’s work extends beyond impaired-driving cases. His record includes complete dismissal of felony commercial-burglary and marijuana charges that exposed a client to state prison, as well as dismissal of serious felony sex charges carrying the threat of prison and lifetime registration. These outcomes reflect a defense practice that does not treat an accusation, laboratory number, or police conclusion as the final word.

Professional recognition has followed. Wagner was selected to Southern California Super Lawyers in 2025 and 2026 and was included among the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 in 2024. His Irvine practice also maintains a 5.0-star Google rating based on 62 reviews.

There is a meaningful difference between studying how criminal cases are constructed and having once prosecuted them, taught police officers how to prepare them, and spent more than two decades challenging them. For a person facing a DUI or criminal accusation, Wagner offers that uncommon perspective together with direct responsibility for the defense.

That combination of experience, reputation, verified professional standing, and public credibility is why Richard Wagner was included on FreddieFender.com.