VanWa Legal won the 2026 Best Criminal Defense Lawyer award in Vancouver, Washington. VanWa Legal earned this award on trial record, named attorney accountability, breadth of practice, and independently verifiable client trust. Roger Priest has practiced since 2009 with roughly 60 jury trials, a specific, checkable trial record rather than a vague claim of experience, and has worked as both an Oregon prosecutor and a Washington public defender, giving him direct experience of a case from both s…
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VanWa Legal won the 2026 Best Criminal Defense Lawyer award in Vancouver, Washington, one of the verified local business awards named by South-South Awards.
VanWa Legal PLLC is a DUI and criminal defense law firm based at 712 W Evergreen Blvd in Vancouver, Washington, serving Clark, Cowlitz and Skamania counties under the brand priestcriminaldefense.com, a distinct office and practice focus from the same PLLC's separate personal injury brand at a different Vancouver address. Attorney Roger Priest leads the firm's criminal defense and DUI work. He has practiced since 2009, has taken roughly 60 cases to jury trial, and previously worked as both an Oregon prosecutor and a Washington public defender. Kevin O'Brien, with the firm since 2014 and also a former prosecutor and public defender, focuses on misdemeanor cases, and Vanessa Cavanaugh handles client coordination. The firm covers a wide span of criminal defense matters, including assault, domestic violence, drug charges, theft, burglary, weapons charges, juvenile defense, expungement and firearm rights restoration, alongside a dedicated DUI defense practice covering arrest, breath test refusal, felony and repeat DUI, field sobriety tests and license suspension. VanWa Legal quotes a flat fee before a client hires the firm, offers payment plans on most cases, and provides a free consultation available 24/7. The firm holds a 4.9 out of 5 rating across more than 110 Google reviews.
VanWa Legal earned this award on trial record, named attorney accountability, breadth of practice, and independently verifiable client trust. Roger Priest has practiced since 2009 with roughly 60 jury trials, a specific, checkable trial record rather than a vague claim of experience, and has worked as both an Oregon prosecutor and a Washington public defender, giving him direct experience of a case from both sides of the courtroom. The firm quotes a flat fee before a client commits, with payment plans available on most cases, so a defendant knows the total cost up front rather than watching an hourly bill accumulate through a case. VanWa Legal runs genuinely deep practices in both criminal defense and DUI defense, each with its own extensive list of specific charge types on the firm's own site, rather than treating one as a minor addition to the other. The firm holds a 4.9 out of 5 rating across more than 110 Google reviews, with named client reviewers describing specific outcomes, evidence independent of the firm's own marketing. VanWa Legal operates from a real, distinct office address for this practice, separate from its sibling personal injury brand's own office elsewhere in Vancouver, confirming two genuine physical premises for the same PLLC rather than a single location split across two marketing sites.
About the Best Criminal Defense Lawyer category: An award recognizing the criminal defense firm that pairs a documented trial record and named attorney accountability, drawn from real prosecutorial and public-defender experience, with a genuinely broad practice across both criminal defense and DUI charges and transparent, flat-fee pricing.
Full selection reasoning for VanWa Legal, including what was checked and how this category is judged: https://southsouthawards.com/2026/us/washington/vancouver/best-criminal-defense-lawyer/
VanWa Legal: https://priestcriminaldefense.com
How every winner is selected: https://southsouthawards.com/the-awards.html
All 2026 South-South Awards winners: https://southsouthawards.com/2026/
South-South Awards names one winner in each category, in each city, each year. Every award page publishes the category criteria, the selection methodology, and the reasons for recognizing its winner. Award status is verified before publication.
What is South South Awards?
South-South Awards names one outstanding local business in each category, in each city, every year. Each episode narrates a winner from the current awards year: the business, the reasons it was selected, and how that category is judged. Every winner profile is published in full at southsouthawards.com, so the reasoning behind each award can be checked, not just taken on trust.