Brian L. Polinske

Brian Polinske has been practicing law in Illinois since 1992. Mr. Polinske concentrates his practice on criminal defense, DUI matters, civil rights cases, and personal injury law.  He was a prosecutor with the Madison County State's Attorney's Office early in his career, where he ran the DUI division, then the felony drug division.  He was assigned civil forfeiture cases and conducted many jury trials.  He has continued successfully conducting over 133 jury trials in a variety of venues.  

He formed his own office in 1993 concentrating in criminal defense.  He has won many types of jury trial in both state and federal courts.  He has won jury trials in Madison, St. Clair, Monroe, Clinton, Macoupin, Marion and Jersey Counties.  Cases from Murder, Methamphetamine Manufacturing, Domestic Battery, Aggravated Battery, DUI, and many other clients have successfully obtained acquittals after he tried their cases.  He specializes in drug trafficking cases and can boast that very few clients have ever served any jail time for any form of cannabis trafficking that he has represented. 

Much of his practice is concentrated in Cannabis and Methamphetamine Trafficking cases.  He has been extremely successful in both fields.  Oftentimes he is able to secure greatly reduced cash bond for the clients.  He then carefully scrutinizes the State's discovery.  Many times the State will not fully comply with the discovery.  He pushes them to produce all materials by using Motions for Sanctions.  Motions to suppress are then filed and many times won.  Hot topics in this field are compelling production of all relevant canine "packets,"  federal EPIC communications, and NPLEX records.   Other hot topics are data extraction via Cellebrite software from portable devices.  Discovery violations by the State routinely result in suppressed evidence that translates into winning the case.

He routinely conducts Statutory Summary Suspension hearings in a variety of counties.  He has not lost a DUI jury trial or Domestic Battery jury trial. 

He has tried many of each.  He is upfront and honest with his clients regarding their probable successes at jury trial.  Not every case can be won at

trial.  It is imperative to evaluate your individual case with the facts that may be introduced.  A diligent evaluation of each case allows a trial

assessment of whether or not to litigate.  Trial success is the only way to evaluate a case.  He uses his vast trial experience to evaluate your case.  The

law regarding DUI and Statutory Summary Suspensions changes regularly.  He is constantly updating himself on the new laws.  One major change

that occurred in 2016 took effect January 1 and allows motorists facing SSS to immediately be able to drive on the first day of the suspension, if they

obtain a driving permit.  Previously the law did not allow the motorist to drive until the first 30 days of suspension had elapsed. 

He regularly represents clients in civil forfeiture claims.  He has successfully obtained the release of an aircraft in Montgomery County which was the

subject of civil forfeiture.   This same case was taken over by federal prosecutors.  He won the aircraft release in May 2019.   He has won money and

real estate forfeiture cases for a variety of clients.  The State's Attorney routinely files forfeiture actions against my clients' properties.  Money,

automobiles, houses, and other personal property of value (IPads, IPhones, etc.) are frequently the subjects of forfeiture.  Civil discovery tools such as

requests for production, requests to admit, interrogatories and subpoenas are used by the State in pursuing the forfeitures.  Mr. Polinske has a thorough

knowledge of all applicable forfeiture statutes (all three codes) and the tools used by the State. 

Civilly he has tried Civil Rights, Sexual Discrimination, Auto Wreck Negligence, Medical Malpractice, Contract Breach, Wrongful Arrests, and

Malicious Prosecution claims.  In the majority of those cases he has been successful.