Best Louisville KY Criminal Defense Lawyers

Why These Louisville Criminal Defense Lawyers?

We help connect consumers with top-rated criminal defense attorneys in Louisville. To determine which are the best of the best, we scored each criminal defense attorney or law firm across a half-dozen metrics covering three categories. Each firm or attorney’s results were analyzed to bring you a handpicked list of the very best criminal defense lawyers in Louisville.

• Attorneys reviewed: 25
• Top picks: 5

If you or a loved one have been arrested, do not delay seeking the assistance of an attorney. The sooner an attorney can get involved in your case, the better your chances of having a strong defense.

The attorney you hire may start right away, studying the authorities’ against you, doing legal research, and preparing legal motions. That’s why the sooner they begin, the better, as they work to chip away at the prosecution’s case against you.

Skilled criminal defense attorneys in Louisville handle everything from DUIs to simple misdemeanors to white-collar crimes to violent felonies. Get the best legal defense in Louisville by choosing from this list of best criminal defense attorneys.

Read the profiles below and choose the attorney or law firm that best aligns with your needs.

Best Louisville Criminal Defense Lawyers

Here are the best criminal defense law firms and attorneys in Louisville:

1. Mike Burns
2. Neil P. Roy
3. Forman & Associates
4. Cox & Mazzoli
5. Leland Hulbert

Best Louisville Criminal Defense Lawyers for 2021

If you or a loved one are looking for an outstanding criminal defense attorney in Louisville, these lawyers are the best of the best.

Mike Burns

9850 Von Allmen Court, Suite 201

Louisville, KY 40241

Phone: (502) 792-7709

Attorney Mike Burns is a former deputy sheriff. Though he’s now retired from that role, it gave him a thorough understanding of the evidence investigators and prosecutors use to attempt to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, so he knows right away when a prosecutor’s case is lacking.

While he also practices mediation and personal injury law, Burns’ primary practice area is in criminal defense, particularly DUI cases. He handles many types of DUI cases, from misdemeanors to serious felonies involving injury or death. Other criminal defense areas include violent crimes, drug violations, sex crimes, white-collar crimes, and property crimes.

Visit law firm website: https://www.mikeburnslaw.com/

Visit law firm Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mikeburnslaw

Neil P. Roy

539 W Market St., Suite 300

Louisville, KY 40202

Phone: (502) 435-4696

A former multi-year top lawyer selection in Louisville magazine, attorney Neil P. Roy began his career in the Louisville/Jefferson County Public Defender’s Office, where he handled hundreds of cases each year. That intense experience instilled in him a strong sense of justice. Today, Roy handles personal injury cases as well as criminal defense.

His major practice areas include felonies and misdemeanors, bond reduction and warrants, drug charges, records expungement, probation violations, and DUIs and traffic violations. Louisville magazine named Roy the best lawyer in the city for criminal defense, DUI, and juvenile law in 2014 and 2016, and he has received many other professional honors.

Visit law firm website: http://www.neilroylaw.com/

Visit law firm Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Neil-Roy-1371353652904333/

Forman & Associates

717 West Market St., Ste. 2

Louisville, KY 40202

Phone: (502) 931-6788

The four attorneys at Forman & Associates handle a wide range of criminal cases, but DUI defense is their primary focus. They’ve helped clients get cases dismissed, win acquittals, and have higher charges amended to lower ones. In addition to expertise in defending DUI cases, multiple associates in the firm have served on the other side of the criminal justice system, building and trying cases as prosecuting attorneys.

Forman & Associates serves clients in Louisville and across the commonwealth of Kentucky and in southern Indiana, just beyond the state line from Louisville. Primary practice areas other than DUI defense include theft, assault, drug crimes, serious traffic offenses, and more. The firm and founder Larry Forman have been honored many times over by industry organizations, including SuperLawyers, the National Trial Lawyers, and Avvo.

Visit law firm website: https://larryformanlaw.com/

Visit law firm Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kyduiguy/

Cox & Mazzoli

600 West Main Street, Suite 300

Louisville, KY 40202

Phone: (502) 589-6190

Scott C. Cox, a founding partner of Cox & Mazzoli, brings years of experience as a former federal prosecutor in narcotics, white-collar, and public corruption cases. His expertise helps give Cox & Mazzoli clients the best chance of successfully taking apart a prosecutor’s case because he knows how they’re built in the first place.

Combined, the two partners have more than 60 years of legal experience, and their primary practice areas include federal and state criminal defense, narcotics crimes, gun charges, juvenile crimes, white-collar crimes, and First Amendment cases. Recently, Cox was named 2022  Louisville Lawyer of the Year for white collar criminal defense by Best Lawyers.

Visit law firm website: https://www.coxandmazzoli.com/

Leland Hulbert

210 Bontressa Drive

Louisville, Kentucky 40206, United States

Phone: (502) 396-9310

Attorney Leland Hulbert has spent the better part of the past 20 years practicing criminal defense throughout the commonwealth of Kentucky. He began his legal career in the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office, gaining experience in how to build a case that will stand up in court. Today, his primary practice area is on the other side of proceedings, helping take prosecutors’ cases apart.

Hulbert has handled cases in both state and federal court, and in addition to criminal law, he also handles family law cases. Burns maintains 10.0 ratings on both Avvo and Justia.

Visit law firm website: https://lelandlawyer.com/

Visit law firm Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LelandHulbertLaw

What Types of Crimes Are Most Common in Louisville?

About 31k crimes were reported in Louisville in 2019, the most recent year for federal data on crime across the country. As is the case across the commonwealth of Kentucky and the entire nation, property crimes are much more common than their violent counterparts. About 85 percent of Louisville crimes in 2019 were property-related incidents, including larceny-theft, which alone accounted for 58 percent of all crimes in the city.

On a population-adjusted basis, violent crimes took place in Louisville at a rate of 687 per 100,000 people, while property crimes had a rate of nearly 3,900 per 100,000. These rates are dramatically higher than the overall U.S. rates due to Louisville, like other cities, having a high rate of population density. The U.S. violent crime rate in 2019 was 367 per 100,000, while the property crime rate was about 2,100 per 100,000.

Crimes in Louisville, by number and per 100,000 people

Louisville has the highest rates of some crimes among most big Kentucky cities. Of the 10 largest cities in the commonwealth, Louisville ranks first for overall violent crimes, murder, aggravated assault, and motor vehicle theft. The Louisville metro area, which includes nine counties in Kentucky and five in Indiana, has some of the highest rates of a few crimes when compared to the 60 biggest cities in the country. The metro area ranks 13th for burglary and 15th for both murder and motor vehicle theft.

Along with Minneapolis, Louisville was one of the epicenters of the growing civil unrest surrounding police violence in 2020 due to the March 13 police shooting of Breonna Taylor. The number of homicides in Louisville almost doubled between 2019 and 2020, with most observers blaming a combination of the pandemic and the racial justice movement that followed the deaths of Taylor and George Floyd in Minneapolis. And the pace of violence has not cooled off in 2021; in fact, the city is on pace to break its homicide record again.

It’s important to note that police- and FBI-reported data does not cover closed cases or incidents for which a person was convicted.

This is correct; not 2021.