Attorney Bio

The Law Offices of Brent Horst provides experienced and aggressive criminal defense services for clients charged with a crime in Tennessee and Florida. We have offices in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville Office Map, and Miami, Florida, Map to Miami Office, and feature criminal defense attorney Brent Horst.

After law school Brent immediately went to work in the State Attorney's Office in Florida. For the next seven years Brent prosecuted all types of crimes and developed a reputation as an extremely effective sex crimes prosecutor becoming the go to guy when the office had a tough case of that type.

In 1994 Brent family responsibilities took to Tennessee where he went to work for the Tennessee Attorney General and Reporter in the death penalty division. Later he went to work at a large private law firm. Soon however he decided that the corporate style of large firms was not for him. He therefore opened his Nashville practice in 1996 focusing on criminal defense. Once his Tennessee practice became a success, Brent decided to put his Florida experience back to work and opened his Florida office in Miami. Currently, Mr. Horst’s practice is focused on handling the most serious charges primarily around, Child Pornography Cases, Sex Crime Charges, State Drug Charges and Violent Crimes.

Not all persons charged with crimes are guilty
Many people often ask Brent how he can defend people charged with crimes, especially for crimes such as sex crimes, rape and child pornography. There are several answers to these questions, which you can view, in detail on his site, Why I Am Proud to Be a Criminal Defense Attorney.

Not all individuals who are charged with crimes by the government are guilty. Rarely does the "system" intentionally arrest and charge an innocent person but false allegations by vindictive spouses, business partners, angry family members, or others with a motive to make false allegations are sometimes made. Many former clients found that Brent’s insight was able to put their mind at ease, Client Testimonials.

Brent has experienced, first hand, having worked for the government as a prosecutor, how the system can make mistakes because of false allegations, or over zealous prosecutors and police officers. While he believes that most prosecutors and police officers are honest people doing a tough job, he knows from personal observation as a former prosecutor that the police and prosecutors often develop "tunnel vision" or confirmation bias" where they form an initial impression about one persons guilt and the entire investigation is tunneled or focused on proving that person's guilt while exculpatory information and other suspects are over looked.

This is an especially troubling problem in child sexual assault cases where the system which includes the investigators and social workers often have an automatic bias in favor of the child and would never consider that the child's allegation could be false. It is Brents' opinion that. In most of these cases, every question of the child or the suspect, and every investigative action taken by the authorities, is designed to confirm the child's accusation, and that the investigation is not an un-biased search for the truth. This happens not because those working in the system do not care about the truth - but because they have an automatic bias against the suspect.

The system is therefore usually quick to react deciding that the suspect is guilty and it kicks into full gear to prove that guilt and puts blinders on as to all other possibilities including the person’s innocence. When the full power and resources of the state comedown on you it is absolutely necessary to have an experienced, touch, effective criminal defense attorney on your side.

It does therefore happen that innocent people are charged with criminal offenses. When it does Brent is am proud to be the one person who stands up to the police and the prosecutors on behalf of these individuals.

Through his career Brent has tried cases from DUI’s to homicide and has tried well over 100 criminal jury trials to verdict. Mr. Horsts’ clients benefit from both his extensive trial experience prosecuting, Child Pornography Cases, Sex Crime Charges, Federal Drug Charges, and with his experience and ability he has become one the elite criminal defense lawyers who is a Board Certified Criminal Trial Specialist, by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education.

As a sole practitioner Brent is able to provide a personal approach that he believes large law firms cannot provide. Many times when you call his office he will answer the telephone himself. When you are charged with a serious felony offense Brent handles every part of your case. Paralegals or inexperienced associates will never touch your file or set one foot in the court room on your behalf. Only Brent with 20 years of criminal law trial experience will handle your defense.

One should not confuse Brent's accessibility to clients and his easy approachable demeanor for him being a push over. In the Court room he is recognized by prosecutor's and judges as a tenacious fighter. His experience, board certification, ability, and toughness places him in the top tier of criminal defense attorneys.

For an aggressive and experienced criminal defense lawyer, contact our Board Certified former prosecuting attorney, Brent Horst, and schedule a free confidential case evaluation.