Darrell G. Griffin Jr

Mr. Griffin has been in the downtown community for over 15 years.  Originally a small business owner across from the courthouse, his clientele was primarily attorneys in the local area. 

Mr. Griffin went on to law school, during which he worked in the San Joaquin District Attorneys Office.  His work was primarily drafting motions and reviewing submissions to clean criminal records.  After graduating, Mr. Griffin went to work in a civil practice drafting complaints for breach of contracts, summary judgement motions, and working to set aside judgements. 

After passing the bar, Mr. Griffin went to work in Calaveras County as a public defender.  His work primarily focused on juvenile dependency and delinquency, with some work on conservatorships, and some misdemeanor work, including DUI trials. In addition to the DUI trials, he had dozens of trials for dependency and delinquency matters.

Wanting to balance out the criminal work, Mr. Griffin took a position as a Deputy District Attorney in Stanislaus County.  Within two months he was working on felony cases.  He was quickly promoted to Department Head, handling the daily calendar in a conflicts department by himself.  With an average case load of 350 cases per year, Mr. Griffin balanced his daily calendar of fifty cases, nearly 300 preliminary hearings, multiple trials, and reviewing around 500 cases a year for decisions on filing a criminal complaint or rejecting a case.  Mr. Griffin was promoted again, and was assigned eight homicides to work, conduct preliminary hearings, and take to trial.  This included being on site when a homicide took place with the Police Officers to evaluate the case and have a solid understanding of what the case would look like for trial.

After two major accidents, Mr. Griffin was injured and medically left the District Attorneys Office going into private practice, with an original intent to work on Wills and Trusts.  However, the local defense bar requested he apply and help with the case load. 

Mr. Griffin now focuses solely on criminal defense work.  In his first year, he resolved over 150 cases.  His practice focuses on private DUI cases, and for the panel he works on serious felonies.  He recently applied for another level panel and has been tentatively accepted to accept homicide cases. 

Mr. Griffin works on every case with a passion for Justice! Having worked both sides of cases, he has an incredible attention to detail, added to his knowledge of the criminal procedure, and case law, he advocates for his clients to the extent possible under the law.