HENDERSON ASSAULT LAWYER

When you think of assault, you may think of someone beating up another person. While it can be assault, contrary to popular belief, assault does not require any physical contact. There also does not need to be any physical injury. Once there is contact or injury, assault turns into battery.

Assault and battery can happen anywhere. An assault tends to happen after someone consumes too much alcohol, so they tend to occur at sporting events and bars. Assault could be two women fighting over the last of a certain product at a local store. It could be teenagers throwing rocks at people. It could be an upset neighbor shoving an elderly person.

Anyone can be assaulted. If you have been a victim, contact a Henderson assault lawyer from Cameron Law to discuss your case and understand your options.

What to Know About Assault

Assault occurs when someone threatens bodily harm to someone that makes them feel as though their life is in danger. However, not all threats can be considered assault. In order to successfully accuse someone of assault, both of the following must be proven:

• The defendant intended to cause fear of harmful contact.
• The defendant’s actions did in fact cause the victim to fear harmful or offensive contact.

To clarify, assault is the attempt to cause physical injury to another person. Attempting to hit another person with a hand or foot or an object and missing them, for example, is considered assault.

What is Battery?

While the terms “assault” and “battery” are often used together, they are not the same. Battery is defined as engaging in willful, violent physical contact against another person. Assault does not require physical contact, but battery does. However, the “physical contact” needed to file a battery charge does not need to be major. You can be charged with battery if you merely touch someone’s clothes in a disrespectful manner.

Battery can result in a misdemeanor or felony charge, depending on how serious it is. In severe cases—such as use of a weapon—a person can face up to 20 years in prison as well as a $10,000 fine. Penalties increase when the victim is of a protected class, such as school employees, healthcare workers, first responders, firefighters, correctional officers, police officers, judges, and state officials.

No two assault and battery cases are the same. It’s possible that the offender may try to paint you, the victim, as the actual instigator and they hit you in self-defense. However, self-defense can be hard to prove.