Keith J. Staten

Keith J. Staten is from Vallejo, CA. He received two AA degrees from Solano Community College and a BS from San Francisco State University. He attended UOP McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento graduating in 1992. His Criminal Defense firm specializes in handling complex criminal litigation, DUI litigation, and DMV administrative licensing issues. After serving at the Sacramento County Public Defender’s office from 1991 to 1994, he went into private practice focusing on criminal defense. From 2001 to 2007, he was a Senior Staff Counsel for the Department of Motor Vehicles. In 2007, he returned to private practice, specializing in complex criminal trials. In 2012, he was named Attorney of the year by the Sacramento County Indigent Criminal Defense Panel for his outstanding case resolutions, which included two jury acquittals on life-offense cases. In 2014 The Hub Magazine in Sacramento recognized him as a leader in the community. In 2014, the Wiley Manuel Bar Association named him attorney of the year. In 2015 he received the “Judge James Long” Community Service award from the Kappa Fraternity’s Roseville Alumni Association. He was recently recognized as a Social Justice Warrior by The National Lawyer’s Guild in 2020.

Mr. Staten is an expert in DUI matters, both from the criminal justice side and the DMV administrative side. He also is known for his successful verdicts in drug and sex cases.

Mr. Staten helped create new case law in the “Facebook” case. In that case, a juror had “friended” other jurors on the social networking site and regularly posted commentary on the trial during that trial. Mr. Staten successfully argued at both the trial and appellate level that his client’s right to a fair trial trumped that juror’s privacy rights, and won a motion for a new trial.

Further, in the case of a fatal shooting at a Sacramento IHOP, Mr. Staten won an acquittal for his client when his frame-by-frame analysis of surveillance video clearly revealed his client acted as a peacemaker, and had left the restaurant before the fight escalated to the shooting.

Mr. Staten mentors high school, college and law students, and from 2015 to 2017, taught paralegal students in the UC Davis Extension Program. Since 2019, he has been an Adjunct Professor at American River College teaching Criminal Law, and Evidence. He assists in running Criminal Expungement clinics held at ARC on Saturdays during the school year. He frequently lectures in the community and performs a “Know Your Rights” educational program which has been featured on radio, and live lectures. He currently serves on the boards of Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep High School, and is a member of many local bar associations including the Sacramento County Bar Association.