Top Lawyer Josh Mulligan: Coachella Valley DUI Lawyer, Domestic Violence, & Criminal Defense
When "The system" comes for you, it doesn’t pause to ask who you are, how you're feeling, or what really happened — it just moves. Fast. Josh's job as a criminal defense attorney is to stand between you and that machinery, slow it down, and make sure your story actually gets heard.
We’re not here to judge you or lecture you, that's "The System's" job. We’re here to defend you — fully, with an aggressive representation, and with the kind of experience you only get from a firm that has never done anything except criminal defense. Criminal justice is what Josh does every single day.
“As a criminal defendant, YOU are our priority.”
We will not push you aside while seeking a big civil win or to charge more hourly fees on a family law case. We are passionately dedicated to our only clients—criminal defendants.
Why hire the Mulligan Defense instead of the next lawyer with a shiny website?
You may ask yourself, "Do I need an experienced attorney?"
Because this isn’t a volume discount law factory.
Most lawyers talk about trial like it’s a mythological creature. Mulligan actually tries cases. Prosecutors in the Coachella Valley know he’ll take a good case to a jury instead of rolling over for the District Attorney.
Do you just plead people out, or do you actually fight?
The easy money in criminal defense is in plea mills—take the fee, take the first offer, say, “This is the best you’re gonna get,” and move on to the next poor soul.
That’s not how the Mulligan Defense works.
Josh has tried dozens of cases to jury verdict and obtained thousands of pre-trial dismissals and reductions over the course of his career. When a case should settle, he’ll tell you straight. When it should be fought, he’s already thinking about how it’s going to play in front of twelve people who couldn’t escape jury duty.
The Mulligan Defense Philosophy
- People are more than their charges.
- Every case has a story the system fails to hear.
- We defend humans, not headlines or police reports.
- We show up. We listen. We tell the truth — your truth.
- And we fight like your future depends on it, because it absolutely does.
If you’re looking for attorneys who believe in second chances, who actually take the time to understand you, and who have built their careers standing between real people and a system that doesn’t care…
You’ve found us.
As a criminal defendant, You are our only priority.
You will never compete with a corporate client, a big civil case, or hourly family-law billing for our attention.
We don’t chase those cases.
We don’t want them.
Our loyalty is to one group of people: those the State is trying to punish.
And when you’re looking at charges that could damage your life, your job, your family, your freedom — you deserve lawyers who see you as more than a file number or a quick settlement opportunity.
That’s why we’re here.
We Limit Our Caseload: Quality is Never A Compromise
One of the biggest failures in criminal defense — on both the private and public side — is overload.
Some attorneys juggle over 100 cases at a time. That’s not representation; that’s triage.
Even a brilliant lawyer becomes useless when buried under too many files.
So we do the opposite.
We intentionally keep our caseload small.
That means we read everything, catch everything, and give every client the time and focus their case deserves.
Nothing gets glossed over. Nothing gets ignored. Nothing falls through the cracks.
When your freedom is at stake, you don’t want the busiest lawyer in town.
You want the one who actually has time for you.
Mulligan Defense covers criminal offenses including:
- DUI Arrests (Driving Under The Influence)
- Domestic Violence (misdemeanor and felony cases)
- Drug Offenses (possession and sales)
- Sex Crimes
- Restraining Orders
- Expungements & Record Clearing
- Violent Crimes
We Have Never Been Prosecutors
There’s a misconception floating around that former prosecuting attorneys make the best defense for your criminal case. Let’s be honest — that’s marketing, not reality.
Prosecuting attorneys and defenders do entirely different jobs.
One is trained to punish.
The other is trained to protect.
Former prosecutors often refer to defendants as “scumbags.”
They chase convictions. They measure success in years of jail time.
They spend their careers asking judges to lock people up — sometimes for the smallest mistakes.
We’ve never done that.
Not once.
We’ve never stood in court and asked a judge to take away someone’s freedom.
We’ve never treated human beings like case numbers or stepping stones.
We’ve never believed that punishment is the default answer to every problem.
You don’t need a lawyer who spent years helping the system crush people.
You need one who’s always stood on the other side — the side that remembers your humanity.
We Have Never Been Cops
Same issue, different badge.
Some attorneys try to sell their past police work as a feature. But here’s the hard truth:
cops spend their careers arresting people and justifying those arrests — often for petty offenses, often with tunnel vision.
That mindset doesn’t magically go away because someone switched sides.
If someone spent years seeing the world through the “suspect = problem” lens, what makes you think they won’t see you the same way?
We don’t come from that world.
We made a conscious decision not to.
Our work has always been grounded in the belief that a person should not be judged solely by their worst moment.
You deserve representation from people who see your humanity first — not someone who has to unlearn an entire career of treating defendants like targets.
Is this just more lawyer advertising fluff?
You’ll see a lot of firms brag about their “success rates” — no jail, no probation, 99% this or 90% that. It looks impressive in Google search results, but here’s the truth: most of those outcomes happen because of the law and the facts, not because a lawyer sprinkled magic dust on the case. We list the stats because people look for them, but when you see numbers like that, take them as what they are: marketing shortcuts that sound good but don’t tell the whole story like we do here at Mulligan Defense.
If this were fluff, it would be the most overqualified pillow you’ve ever seen. Mulligan has:
- Over 50 jury trials, fighting for his clients until the very end.
- 9 years on the front lines as a Public Defender with extensive experience litigating major felony cases
- Top ratings on Justia and Avvo, based on client reviews and peer recognition.
- A graduate of Cornell Law School to Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College, plus published articles in legal journals and trial magazines.
- Never a prosecutor, Never Police — lifelong defender of the accused
In other words, this isn’t just “I care about my clients” pasted over a stock photo of a gavel.
I’m scared and embarrassed. Are you just going to lecture me about my life choices?
No. You’ve already got the government, the cops, and half the internet ready to judge you.
The Mulligan Defense has one job: protect you and your future. That means listening without flinching, being honest without being cruel, and keeping your dignity intact while the system tries its best to take it away.
You don’t need a scolding. You need a strategist who:
- Knows the local courts, judges, and prosecutors.
- Has defended everything from DUIs and domestic violence to sex offenses, serious felonies, and festival cases out of Indio.
Josh understands that your case is about more than charges — it’s about your job, your family, your freedom, and the rest of your life.
What makes Mulligan different from other criminal defense lawyers?
Short version: he knows how to turn your mess into a story that matters.
Mulligan trained at Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyers College, a place where lawyers go to unlearn the stiff, robotic courtroom act and learn how to tell a human story that a jury actually feels. Your case stops being a file number and becomes a real person’s life—with all the fear, family, and fallout that come with it
The system treats you like a problem to be processed. Mulligan treats you like a human being whose story deserves to be told.
Bottom line: why hire the Mulligan Defense for DUI and other criminal matters?
Because when the criminal system is chewing on your leg, you don’t need a slogan. You need someone who:
- Is certified, battle-tested, and respected throughout the Coachella Valley.
- Has decades of experience and real jury trial chops.
- Knows how to turn your story into an aggressive defense, not just paperwork.
The Mulligan Defense is for people who are done being case numbers and are ready to fight back.
Contact The Mulligan Defense to schedule your free consultation today.
Your story matters. Let’s defend it.
