Assault and battery are intentional cases, which implies that both assault and battery are the outcomes of a deliberate act. An assault or battery may be the foundation for a civil action. This implies that both offenses may be prosecuted in state courts, with the aggressor facing fines and prison terms. Grillo Law can help you understand more about assault and battery claims.
Despite the fact that both civil and criminal assault and battery have comparable legal evidentiary standards, many criminal statutes differ in the particular behavior and intent required to prosecute them as a crime. In a nutshell, an assault is an effort or threat by one person to place another person in fear of bodily danger, whereas battery is the act of making harmful or offensive contact with another person. As a result, battery is simply a logical extension of, or a completed attack.
To charge someone with assault and battery, what is required?
As previously stated, the standards for charging someone with assault and battery differ by jurisdiction. Furthermore, the standards for prosecuting someone for assault and battery in a criminal prosecution differ from the requirements for proving a civil case. This implies that before filing a civil or criminal complaint against someone, you should review your local jurisdiction’s civil and criminal legislation.
The components of a civil assault and a criminal assault are typically fairly similar. The following are the components that must be proven in order for a plaintiff to win a civil assault case:
- There must be a deliberate attempt or threat to do harm to another person.
- The risk of injury must be obvious. This means that promised violence must be conceivable, which means that threatening to punch someone over the phone from another state would be insufficient.
- The victim must be in reasonable fear or suspicion of physical injury. For example, if a 100-pound person informed a professional heavyweight boxer that they were going to strike them in the face, the professional boxer might not be afraid of immediate contact because the person is not a threat to them.
In order to win a civil suit for battery, you must show that the defendant committed a harmful or offensive intentional act; that the act resulted in a touching or application of force to another person; and that the touching or application of force occurred without that person’s consent or permission.