Principal attorney and Barone Defense Firm founder Patrick T. Barone is among the most experienced and well-respected DUI/OWI defense attorneys in the state of Michigan. His impressive record of case wins, published works, teaching experience, and client and peer reviews have cemented his esteemed position in the legal community.
After beginning his legal career handling medical malpractice cases, Mr. Barone decided to open his own criminal defense firm and eventually narrowed his practice to focus solely on drunk and drugged driving defense. His passion for helping accused citizens and holistic approach to helping clients win back their lives have led to his firm’s success.
Mr. Barone is the co-author of two books on DUI-related issues, including Defending Drinking Drivers (James Publishing) a well-known and highly respected multi-volume national legal treatise, and “The DUI Book – A Citizen’s Handbook on Fighting a Drunk Driving Charge.” Mr. Barone is also the executive editor of The DWI Journal, Law & Science, a nationally circulated legal periodical dedicated to improving the success rate of defense attorneys in drunk driving cases
Mr. Barone has a sterling reputation among his clients and peers. US News & World Report has ranked him among America’s Best Lawyers and has named The Barone Defense Firm as one of America’s Best Law Firms. He enjoys a perfect rating on AVVO—the premiere client- and peer-rating site—and has been given a rating of “Seriously Outstanding” by SuperLawyers. Martindale-Hubbell has awarded Mr. Barone an AV rating, the highest achievable in the legal field.
My StoryI know what it's like to be scared, in the dark, and feeling helpless - no one should have to feel that way.
You can chalk it up to me being a dumb teenager, and there's truth to it, but I didn't do anything wrong. Not really. And yet, I was still treated like a common criminal. And I remember feeling like the Detroit officers were getting a big kick out of the whole thing. It seemed like they were getting pleasure from inflicting the emotional pain and humiliation. I remember the rude comments on the way to the precinct.
Sitting in a Detroit jail cell, accused of Grand Theft Auto….That's how I spent my 18th birthday!
As a teenager, living close to an international border seemed fun, and going through customs was a breeze in those days. Of course, at 18 we were still kids really, and my friends and I didn't fully appreciate nor totally understand the need to be careful. No need to give them a reason to interrogate you, that's for sure.
That night my Italian girlfriend made our reservations under the name "Tocco&" at the Roma Café, a Downtown restaurant that was once a hangout for the Detroit mob. A dimly lit dusty old place that might remind you of a brothel except that it smelled like veal Siciliano. Possibly owing to my friend's last name, the service that night was outstanding, diligent and exceedingly polite. After dinner, our plan was to go to Coach and Horses in Windsor to shoot pool with some friends.
Our troubles started toward the end of our night when we approached the U.S. Canada border.
I was driving a golden brown 1972 Pontiac Ventura. An old beater of a car with a blue driver-side door, a crushed rear end, and bald tires. I paid roughly $200.00 for this rare beauty only a few months earlier and since the law had just changed, I left the former owner's license plate right where it has always been - on the front bumper. The law had just changed making front plates unnecessary, so what did it matter that my front plate didn't match the backplate? The border agents didn't see it that way. Especially since the front plate came up registered to a stolen car!
When the agent stepped out of his little gate house and started walking around the car all suspicious like, I immediately started feeling something wasn't right. After a couple more questions, we were directed to pull over, then whisked inside a small sterile room with no windows or furniture. My stomach sank, and I could feel that lump in my throat - this wasn't funny anymore, this was serious. After being interrogated and strip-searched, we were turned over to the Detroit Police Department. Two burly Marine-cut officers talked briefly to the agents, grabbed some paperwork, then arrested me.
As I'm sitting in silence in the back of Detroit PD cruiser the only thing I can hear is whirring sound of something electronic periodically punctuated by the clunky sound of the wheels jumping over each bump on our way to the precinct. This has a strange almost hypnotic rhythm to it. The ride feels like an eternity. Soon, I am booked and tossed into an empty cell that is brightly lit from above by hanging fluorescent buzzing lights. I hear the sound of metal on metal as the door closes behind me, and I realize I'm not just hearing but somehow actually feeling in the pit of my stomach the clunk of the doors locking. My mouth is dry, and as I enter the cell the institutional smell hanging in the air grabs my nose; it's kind of like a cross between a locker room and a hospital, but nastier, like they tried to make things clean and sterile but it really just smells like they're covered up someone's body odor, or worse. The linoleum covered cement floor feels cold and hard under my feet. I'm caged like an animal and I feel more alone than ever.
After several hours of just me and God in that cell; suddenly, I am released, along with my girlfriend. Not really released as much as kicked out in the pouring rain to start our drive home. No apology, no explanation.
It's hard to really talk about all the sights and sounds and feelings, but if you've ever been in jail, you know what I mean. And the experience stays with you. It wasn't until a long time later that I finally got that smell out of my nose. That's what I remember most. I also remember the feelings - scared and powerless and despite the bright lights, I was totally in the dark. I didn't know it then, but as bad as it was, that arrest changed the course of my life.
I also know what it's like to have to explain what happened to loved ones.
I hardly made it home before dawn that night, so of course, the parents were upset. My mom was beside herself with worry. And so were my girlfriend's parents. I tried my best to apologize to them when I dropped her off back at home, but it didn't matter. That was our first and only date. My parents found my story very hard to believe and insisted I must have done something wrong. One thing I learned about being arrested; it doesn't matter if you did it or not, people treat you different afterward. People who are innocent don't get arrested, right?
And being bullied by men in authority with guns is no fun.
As the son of a dentist who grew up in the suburbs, I can't say that I know what it's like to be targeted by the police. But in this experience at least I learned what it's like to be the target of a bully. Looking back, I think this is when the seeds were sown in me; seeds that grew into a criminal defense lawyer. On behalf of the clients I proudly serve today, my role is to make the bully fight fair. Then, after working for a judge in law school, and seeing how the law is really practiced, not in the classroom but in the courtroom, I knew the criminal law would be my passion. I've never looked back.
Detailed BiographyPatrick T. Barone began his legal career in 1988 when he was a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Richard D. Kuhn of the Oakland County Circuit Court. In 1992, he opened his law practice and initially he handled hundreds of disparate felony criminal matters in the adult and juvenile courts. In 1999, Mr. Barone decided to focus exclusively on cases involving allegations of intoxicated driving. Almost immediately thereafter Mr. Barone quickly began to establish a national reputation for being among the best DUI defense lawyers in the country, and this lead to the formation of the Barone Defense Firm in 2003, which is now headquartered in Birmingham, Michigan. The Barone Defense Firm maintains offices in Grand Rapids as well.
After a national search, in 2006 Mr. Barone was offered the opportunity to become the new author of Defending Drinking Drivers, which was first published in 1986 and authored by one of the titans of DUI defense, John Tarantino. This two-volume textbook remains widely considered a seminal work on the subject. In 2007 Mr. Barone took over as the executive editor of the DWI Journal -Law and Science, and in 2008 he was offered a position as an adjunct professor at the Western University Cooley Law School where he teaches a course entitled "Drunk Driving Law & Practice.&" He has also authored chapters in Defending DUI Vehicular Homicide Cases, 2012/2014 eds., and a chapter in Witness Preparation and Examination for DUI Proceedings, 2015 ed.: Leading Lawyers on Understanding the Role of Witnesses in DUI Cases (Inside the Minds) (Aspatore Books). In 2017 Mr. Barone authored two more books, one entitled "Michigan Gun Law&" and The Entrepreneurs Guide to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Laws.
In 2010 Mr. Barone accepted a position as a legal skills instructor for the CDAM/Cooley Trial Practice College, and in 2012 he graduated from the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyer's College. In 2017 Mr. Barone became a Board-Certified Practitioner of Psychodrama; an action method used by many of the Nation's top trial lawyers for trial preparation and presentation. No other Michigan lawyer has this distinction.
Mr. Barone has applied his psychodrama training in his law and trial practice, in his teaching of law and trial skills, sociodrama in the business environment and Bibliodrama and psychodrama in the church setting. In his capacity as a business consultant, Mr. Barone has worked with business owners and executives in businesses of all sizes throughout Michigan, including by way of example, TGI Direct, Movimento, AcuMax, A2 Energy Systems LLC, Spry Publishing, Compliance Training Partners/Drakeshire Dental, Booms Stone Co., The Hunter Group, LLC., Vistage Michigan, and dozens of other businesses and executives.
Mr. Barone has an "AV&" (highest) rating from Martindale-Hubbell, and since 2009 has been included in the highly selective US News & World Report's America's Best Lawyers while The Barone Defense Firm appears in their companion America's Best Law Firms. He has been rated "Seriously Outstanding&" by SuperLawyers, rated "Outstanding/10.0&" by AVVO and was appointed to the advisory board for the Michigan edition of Leading Lawyers Magazine.
The youngest of 6 children, Mr. Barone grew up in Oakland County. He has been happily married over 20 years and is the father of two girls.
Mr. Barone is an Adjunct Professor at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School where he teaches a course entitled "Drunk Driving Practice.&" This is believed to the only dedicated drunk driving course offered at any law school anywhere in the United States. The course combines criminal law, constitutional law, and forensic science into one course, and course topics include the science involved in drunk driving, such as alcohol metabolism, breath and blood testing, and field sobriety testing. Students also have the opportunity to apply what they learn in a mock trial at the end of the semester.
Mr. Barone was also recently unanimously nominated by the Board of Regents for the National College for DUI Defense to the position of sustaining member. He is also a member of the National Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Criminal Defense Lawyers of Michigan, and the Criminal Law Section of the Michigan State Bar Association.