Assault and Battery

Across the nation, assault and battery crimes are taken very seriously, but each state has its own definition of what exactly the terms “assault” and “battery” mean and how severely they should be punished. In California, assault is defined as attempting to harm or offensively touch someone, whereas battery is the act of actually harming someone or touching them in an unwelcome or violent way.

For instance, let’s say two people get into an argument. Person A calls Person B a rude name. In retaliation, Person B tries to hit Person A but misses. At this point, Person B has committed assault. They haven’t physically harmed Person A, but they did try to.

Person B then tries to push Person A and succeeds. Now, Person B has committed battery. This is a fairly straightforward example of assault versus battery. As you can imagine, though, the various assault and battery charges can become much more complex, especially when no one is physically harmed and when the people involved disagree on what really happened.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

What happens after an assault, battery, or both greatly depends on the person who was harmed or threatened and how severely they were hurt. The resulting charge may be a misdemeanor or a felony. As a general rule, the more serious the injury, the more serious the charge. If the offended party was a civil servant — such as a police officer, paramedic, or firefighter — the charges become even more serious for the aggressor. Their charge jumps from “battery” to “battery on a police officer” or “battery on a peace officer” — both of which are taken very seriously and are often escalated to felony charges.

COMPENSATION FOR THE OFFENDED PARTY

Any time a person gets hurt because of someone else’s actions, the injured person may be entitled to compensation in order to pay for various expenses caused by the injury. When it comes to assault and battery cases, these are just a few of the after-effects that the offended party may be able to claim compensation for: If you’ve been seriously injured by a dog bite, you will have a lot of things to worry about. With my help, you will be able to focus on getting better while I handle the legal stuff.

• Medical expenses
• Physical therapy
• Psychological trauma and recovery
• Lost wages
• Loss of future earnings
• Expenses related to changing travel plans