While most assault and battery charges are misdemeanors, it is important to contact one of our attorneys to discuss your case.
People often confuse the offenses of assault and battery.
Assault is when a person when either (1) attempts to commit a violent injury to the person of another; OR (2) commits an act which places another in reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury. Assault can be as simple as attempting to hit another person or making an intimidating gesture that would cause another person to reasonably believe you may harm them.
In contrast, Battery is when a person either: (1) Intentionally makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with the person of another; OR (2) Intentionally causes physical harm to another. Battery requires you to make physical contact with another person that causes some type of harm. For example, this could be punching another person or spitting in another person’s face.
In Georgia, Assault and Battery are both misdemeanors. However, Georgia has separate crimes of Aggravated Assault and Aggravated Battery, which are both Felonies. Aggravated Assault is when a person uses some sort of object, deadly weapon, or firearm to commit an assault. Aggravated Battery when a person maliciously causes bodily harm to another by depriving him or her of a member of his or her body, by rendering a member of his or her body useless, or by seriously disfiguring his or her body or a member thereof.
Aggravated Assault and Aggravated Battery can carry serious punishment. It is important to begin gathering facts quickly, including police reports, 911 audio logs, and computer aided dispatch records. The nature of the assault and battery cases is that it can often be a “he said, she said” situation. There is often a lack of physical evidence and minimal supporting evidence besides the testimony of the alleged victim. Investigation of the alleged victim and of the alleged act is crucial. If other witnesses were present, it is important to interview witnesses quickly and obtain a cell phone video or surveillance video as soon possible.
The benefits of working with one of our experienced assault attorneys in Atlanta is the guidance and protection of the lawyer to the client as they navigate the process of the criminal justice system in Georgia. An experienced lawyer helps build the defense from the ground up, from the client’s own stories and from the work of the team to achieve a successful result for the client.
Police and prosecutors often focus on the alleged victim’s story in a way that overlooks factual and physical discrepancies. This narrow scope of police investigations often does not provide the entire story when viewed from the perspective of the criminal defendant. It is the unwillingness of the prosecution to look at charges from the viewpoint of a person charged with assault that requires the person charged to seek the protection of an attorney experienced in defending assault and battery charges.
We often challenge the lack of physical evidence in assault cases. We challenge the veracity and credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses, the personal history of the prosecution’s witnesses, and other charges based on other crimes they were charged with over the years. The likelihood that a witness is telling the truth and their reputation for telling the truth can be essential to your defense.
Many of these cases involve the consumption of alcohol or drugs by alleged victims. An experienced Atlanta assault lawyer can attack the memory of alleged victims under the influence. Exploiting their memory of an event is often one of the most helpful things in dealing with an assault case because jurors question the memory of someone under the influence of alcohol or drugs in remembering an event.