Twain Harte sits up Highway 108 above Sonora, a mountain town at about 3,600 feet where the foothills give over to pine and fir. It was named for two writers, Mark Twain and Bret Harte, and it draws cabin traffic year-round, heavier in winter when people head up for the snow near Dodge Ridge. More cars on a mountain highway means more DUI stops and more crashes, and neither of those is heard in Twain Harte. There's no courthouse here. Every case goes down the hill to the Tuolumne County Superior Court at 12855 Justice Center Drive in Sonora.
Karan Saini is a former prosecutor, and he's clear that the history is a Stanislaus County one, not a Tuolumne one. He grew up in Modesto and tried felonies at the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office before he switched to defense. Twain Harte is roughly an hour and change from Modesto, the last stretch of it climbing 108, and Karan makes the drive to appear in Sonora. What carries up the mountain isn't local roots. It's that he spent years deciding what to charge and how to prove it, so he knows the moves a DA makes and where they tend to fall apart.
The firm handles both sides. Criminal: DUI, often off a winter stop on 108, plus domestic violence, drug charges, theft, and violent felonies. Injury: car wrecks on the grade, dog bites, falls, and the wrongful-death claims an insurer hopes to settle low. A vacation town doesn't lower the stakes of a felony charge. A conviction follows you home from the mountains the same as anywhere.
Karan speaks English, Hindi, and Punjabi, and the firm offers Spanish-language services, so nothing gets lost in translation. Consultations are free. If you've been charged or hurt by someone else in Twain Harte, call 209-809-1634 before you talk to police or sign anything an adjuster puts in front of you.