ASSAULT AND BATTERY
If you were attacked by another person such as a neighbor, at a bar or at work, please contact us to see if you have a case.
Battery:
Battery occurs where a person is touched or caused to be touched with the intent to harm or offend. This means you can sue for battery if another person acts in a way with purpose to case you harm or offend you. The obvious one is when a person directly strikes you with a punch or a kick.
The contact can be offensive even if not harmful. For example, if a person touches your neck gently without permission, there is no physical injury, but the contact is offensive. Whether something is offensive is based on a reasonable person standard. If a reasonable person would be offended in similar circumstances, then it is offensive contact. Let’s say a person taps you on the shoulder to get past you on the train and you claimed the tap was offensive. A reasonable person in a crowded train understands it is reasonable to tap another in order to get by. Thus, there is no battery because the contact is not offensive to a reasonable person on a train.
QUICK CONTACT
Assault:
An assault occurs in one of two ways. First, where a person acts intending to cause harmful or offensive contact and the person assaulted reasonably believed the contact was imminent. For example, if someone tries to punch to and misses, even though no contact was made, the person acted with the purpose of causing harmful contact. The reasonable standard as stated above is applicable here as well. To reiterate, whether something is offensive is based on a reasonable person standard.
The second type occurs when the assaulter threatens the touch in a harmful or offensive manner which reasonably appeared to be carried out, and harm was done which was substantially caused by the assault.
Of course, the person assaulted cannot have consented to the act. If you were assaulted, call the police immediately. They will come out and do a report. If the assault already occurred, you can still file a police report. Please call us to find out how. The longer you wait, the harder it is to collect evidence such as witness statements and possible surveillance video.
Our firm is dedicated to providing aggressive and professional representation. We believe communication and teamwork is the best way to achieve a client’s goals.
