Law Offices of Mayo Bartlett, PLLC

Focus and practice areas

The firm handles five areas of litigation: criminal defense, DWI and DUI, civil rights, personal injury, and white collar defense. Mayo Bartlett runs it from an office in White Plains, New York. The site presents the firm as a litigation practice, so these cases can end up in front of a judge or jury.

In criminal defense and impaired driving matters, the firm defends people who face charges. In civil rights and personal injury matters, it represents plaintiffs, the people who bring the claim. White collar defense covers charges such as fraud and larceny.

That pairing gives the firm a footing on both sides of a courtroom. A defense lawyer answers the state's case; a plaintiff's lawyer builds one. Bartlett takes on both kinds of work.

Inside the criminal defense work

On the criminal side, the firm lists homicide, robbery, burglary, sex crimes, domestic violence, narcotics cases, weapons charges, fraud, larceny, traffic offenses, and impaired driving among the charges it defends. The list covers misdemeanor traffic matters and serious felonies alike.

A criminal case in New York usually begins with an arrest and an arraignment, where a judge sets the terms of release. It then moves through pretrial motions and discovery, and many cases resolve by plea agreement. When a matter does reach trial, the defense makes its argument to a jury or, in some instances, to a judge. A firm organized around litigation is set up to carry a case through each of these stages.

Impaired driving matters follow their own track. In New York a DWI charge can involve both a criminal court and the Department of Motor Vehicles, and a driver's license can be at stake alongside the criminal penalty. Breath and blood test results, field sobriety observations, and the legality of the traffic stop all give a defense points to examine.

White collar defense sits within this criminal work too. Fraud and larceny charges of that kind often rest on records and financial documents, and the investigation behind them can run long before any arrest. A defense in these matters frequently begins during that investigation stage, well ahead of a formal charge.

Domestic violence cases tend to move fast in their first days, and a court can issue an order of protection at the arraignment. The firm names domestic violence among the matters it defends, so a client facing that kind of charge would find it within the stated work.

The plaintiff-side work

Two of the firm's areas put it on the side of the person bringing a case. In personal injury, that means someone hurt in an accident or by another party's negligence. In civil rights, that means someone whose treatment by a government body or the police is at issue.

A personal injury claim in New York runs on a clock. State law sets a deadline for filing after an injury, and the early work involves gathering medical records and documenting losses before any talk of settlement. Many of these claims settle, and the ones that do not go to a jury on the questions of fault and damages. A litigation firm handles both the negotiation and the trial.

Civil rights cases often turn on the conduct of public officials, and many proceed in federal court under statutes that let a person sue over a violation of their rights. These matters can be slow and document-heavy. The firm appears in both state and federal court, which is where claims of this kind are heard.

Who runs the firm

Mayo Bartlett is the Principal Attorney and the only lawyer the site names. Before he moved into private practice, he spent more than ten years at the Westchester County District Attorney's Office. He worked in the Superior Court Trial Division and later became Chief of the Bias Crimes Unit.

The Bias Crimes Unit handles offenses driven by a victim's race, religion, or another protected characteristic, and Bartlett led that work for the county. A prosecutor tries cases for the state, so a decade in that role means years of taking matters to trial from the other chair. Bartlett now brings that vantage to the defense side and to his plaintiff-side civil rights cases. He also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Pace Law School.

Courts, coverage, and history

The site names New York City, the Hudson Valley, Westchester County, the rest of New York State, and Connecticut as the areas the firm serves. That reach crosses a state line and takes in both the New York City area and the counties to its north.

Serving New York City, Westchester, and the Hudson Valley puts the firm's work across several county court systems, each with its own courthouses and calendars. Adding Connecticut brings a second state's courts into the picture. A firm that appears across this area deals with more than one set of local rules and judges.

The firm's cases have gone before New York state courts and federal courts. It dates that courtroom work to 1993, which gives it a record of more than thirty years in litigation. The site does not list a founding year for the firm itself, and the 1993 date is the clearest time marker on the public pages.

Considerations for someone comparing lawyers

In my opinion, the clearest feature here is the pairing of one named attorney with a long stretch of prosecutorial experience. A client who hires the firm works with Mayo Bartlett himself, and the criminal background he brings comes from years inside a district attorney's office.

The mix of criminal defense and plaintiff-side civil rights work is worth noting for anyone weighing where to take a case. A person facing a criminal charge and a person bringing a civil rights claim both fall within the areas the firm handles.

As a reviewer, I would suggest confirming current details straight with the firm, since the public pages keep their description brief on several points. What the site does state, it states plainly, including the charge list and the courts where the firm appears. The office is in White Plains, and the firm's litigation work reaches from New York City north through the Hudson Valley and into Connecticut.