Proven Track Record of Winning Assault Cases

This is where you are defending yourself, another person or property from an attacker or a thief.

It is the most common defence to an assault charge.

For self defence, you would need to have believed that your actions were necessary to defence yourself, another or property and would have to be reasonable in the situation.

If self defence is raised at a court hearing, the case against you will be thrown out of court unless the other side proves beyond reasonable doubt that you were not acting in self defence.

If your lawyer believes that you may have been acting in self defence, they can write to the other side before even going to court and advise them that you have a valid defence.

It may help if you have a witness that is willing to attend your lawyer’s office to give a written statement.

Once your lawyer has written to the other side, they should contact them to press for withdrawal of the charge on the basis of self defence.

Cases can often be dropped if the lawyer fights hard at an early stage.

Duress is when you are forced to commit the assault by being threatened with serious injury or death.

To rely on duress, you must have believed that you would have been injured if you did not commit the assault and that belief must be reasonable.

Also, there must have been no reasonable possibility of escaping.

For example, duress might occur if a group of attackers force you to punch another person under a threat that you will be badly hurt or killed.

If you lawyer feels that necessity may be available, they can write to the other side requesting that the charges be withdrawn on that basis.

Necessity is where you commit an assault to get out of an emergency situation.

For example, if someone threatens to kill or hurt you and you jump in your car and – while reversing to get away – recklessly hit and hurt someone, you may be able to rely on the defence of necessity.

However, getting in your case and driving in that way must be the only reasonable way to deal with the situation and be seen as a reasonable response in the circumstances.

If your lawyer believes that necessity may be available, they can write to the other side and request the withdrawal of charges on that basis.

Lawful Correction is a defence to assault of a child by its parent or a pupil by its teacher.

However, the actions of the parent or teacher must be reasonable and warranted in all of the circumstances.

Examples of lawful correction might include smacking a child on the bottom or pushing them to their room for misbehaving.

However, punching, kicking or striking a child excessively would not normally amount to lawful correction.