Attorney Taylor M. Hart joined Martinez & Ruby, LLP, in 2017. He practices criminal defense exclusively and handles a wide variety of cases including those involving allegations of domestic violence, drug possession and related offenses, burglary, theft, OWI, sexual assault, and homicide.

Attorney Hart is a skilled and accomplished trial attorney. He is a recipient of the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Hanson Memorial Advocate’s Prize, which is presented to attorneys who have won a not-guilty verdict in a homicide jury trial. He has also been named a Top 40 Under 40 Criminal Defense Attorney by The National Trial Lawyers and has been given the Clients' Choice Award by Avvo.

The trial for which Attorney Hart won the Hanson Prize involved a count of first-degree intentional homicide, the most serious crime under Wisconsin law. Taylor was featured on WKOW 27 News after that victory. He also recently obtained acquittals on all counts in a case involving charges of first-degree sexual assault of a child, incest, child enticement, and exposing genitals to a child. Attorney Hart’s client in that case was facing a mandatory minimum sentence of at least 25 years in prison if convicted.

In addition to, and because of, his success at trial, Attorney Hart has a lengthy record of negotiating dismissals of cases pre-trial, thereby saving his clients the anxiety, risk, and expense associated with trial. He has had numerous cases dismissed with charges ranging in severity from disorderly conduct and OWI to burglary and sexual assault.

Taylor is a native of California and moved to Wisconsin to attend law school at the University of Wisconsin—Madison where he graduated with a criminal law degree concentration. While in law school, he represented clients incarcerated at Wisconsin’s federal prison in Oxford and also worked for the State Public Defender’s Office in Baraboo. Prior to law school, he graduated magna cum laude from California State University San Marcos with a degree in Criminology and Justice Studies.