Timothy Litka

 Timothy Litka represents clients in all aspects of the practice and heads the appellate section of the firm.  As a civilian, he clerked for The Honorable Judge John Wise of The Fifth District Court of Appeals.  It was at the Court of Appeals where he first became interested in sharpening his skills to argue cases at the appellate level.  As a soldier Timothy holds the rank of Major and represents soldiers before the military appellate courts.  A former public defender he defended hundreds of clients facing family law, misdemeanor, and felony allegations. 

When Timothy entered the U.S.  Army’s JAG Corps., he utilized the skills he learned as a public defender to represent soldiers and dependents facing many different legal issues and helped them resolve outstanding debts, problems with command, and estate planning issues.  At this point the Army JAG Corps wanted to move Timothy to the position of trial counsel (prosecutor).  Risking his career, he told the Army “no.” He wanted to defend soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas.  Fort Hood was the busiest trial defense shop in the Army.  He was ultimately moved to trial defense.

Timothy has defended servicemen facing a wide variety of charges.  Among those defended, were soldiers charged with murder and attempted murder. One of his cases brought attention to the United States Military’s DNA Repository and its access for Law Enforcement Purposes.
  
Timothy has defended service members facing various drug charges to include wrongful importation and distribution of approximately 450 pounds of marijuana, wrongful distribution of 41 pounds of marijuana and 1 gram of cocaine, wrongful use of marijuana and cocaine, and violating 21 USC § 856 (2002) (The Federal Crack House Statute). 

As a civilian and member of the military Timothy has been lead defense counsel in several hundred cases defending against allegations involving rape, larceny, carnal knowledge, assault, child pornography, and various military specific offenses such as AWOL. 

One of Timothy’s clients was the last of three, to go to trial, facing the allegation of premeditated murder.  He was found not guilty of premeditated murder and Timothy’s sentencing argument brought forth the following observation from his Senior Defense Counsel “I personally observed CPT Litka present the most persuasive, cogent, elegant argument on behalf of a soldier that I saw in my tenure as Senior Defense Counsel.”

Timothy subsequently moved to the military appellate courts to build upon his knowledge of the military criminal system.  At this stage he learned that the fight does not end after trial is over.  Courts-martial sentences can be reduced and contested charges can be fought again and set aside if the court finds the evidence was insufficient at trial.

Timothy is exceptionally adept at culling the most significant facts from voluminous records of trial and maximizing the use of favorable case law.  This skill once persuaded The Court of Appeals of The Armed Forces to reduce oral argument time from 30 to 15 min.

Due to his knowledge of the military justice system, Timothy was selected to help begin the Army’s E-Justice computer program.  The concept of E-Justice is to place the Army’s criminal law business practice from an allegation showing up on the military police blotter to the appeal to The United States Supreme Court in a web based program.

Timothy is an active member of The District of Columbia Bar, and is admitted to practice in front of The United States Supreme Court, The Court of Appeals of The Armed Forces, the Army, Navy/Marine, and Air Force appellate courts, and every military trial court worldwide.  He is the recipient of the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, The Army Service Ribbon, The Army Staff Identification Badge, The Meritorious Service Medal, and The Reserve Overseas Training Ribbon (x2).