3 Defense Strategies Your Assault Attorney May Wish To Pursue
If you have been charged with assault, you should know that there are several different defense strategies that your attorney may choose to pursue in order to ensure you are not convicted of this serious crime. Which defense strategy is used will ultimately depend upon the specific facts in your case. Continue reading to learn more about three of the options you may want to discuss with your assault attorney.
#1: Consent
The charge of assault is different from many other criminal charges in the fact that the action of committing assault is only illegal if the person did not consent to your actions. While this may sound a bit strange at first, there are actually several situations in which a person may consent to be assaulted. For instance, if you choose to take part in a boxing match, you are consenting to being physically assaulted due to the nature of the sport. This applies even if the boxing match did not take place in a regulated arena. If you believe the person you allegedly assaulted provided consent, your assault attorney may wish to pursue this defense strategy since consent is a complete defense to the charge of assault.
#2: Self-Defense
Self-defense can be a tricky defense strategy when fighting an assault charge. This is because while you absolutely have the right to defend yourself against an attack, the law only allows you to use necessary force. For example, if someone much smaller than you is attempting to assault you using their hands, using a weapon to stop the attack is unlikely to be ruled necessary force. When trying to determine whether or not your actions fall into the category of self-defense, your assault attorney will need to determine if you had reason to believe you were in danger and whether you could have stopped the threat against you using a lesser degree of force. If your actions were both justified and reasonable, a self-defense strategy could be appropriate in your case.
#3: Defense Of Others Or Property
Just as you have the right to defend yourself against a threat, you also have the right to defend other people and your personal property as well. Just as with self-defense, the key to using this defense strategy will be to prove that your actions were justified and that you used an appropriate level of force. This means proving that you had a reason to believe that the person or property you were defending was in danger and that you use only as much force as necessary to put an end to this threat.
For more information, contact a local law firm, like Epstein & Robbins.
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