Assault is an incredibly dense charge because it implies something very dangerous and frightening. To assault someone is to attack them. The attack could be literal or implied. In an assault, the fear is through the roof, but that is not always the case. In a surprising amount of cases at Sitename, an assault is only pegged with hindsight. During the actual assault, there may not have been a lot of fear going around.
A common example would be two men who fight in a bar: a classic story of a simple testosterone-fueled disagreement turned into an assault charge. On paper, one individual can explain the damages they incurred, and they can speak about the medical costs they accumulated because the client knocked them square in the face. What is being left out of the discussion is the intent and the fear involved.
The man, intoxicated, was not in any high amount of fear. He could have been sober. If he helped provoke the fight, he may not have been all that fearful of the person who hit him. Fear is the driving force behind an assault charge, and assault defense attorneys will stress that reality when they build a case.
In the above example, it would appear the man who started the fight and hit the other person is almost entirely responsible. But, the assault could be minimized to a simple assault by the assault defense attorneys or something else because there was no fear factor. The man instigated was in a bar, and he was intoxicated. Where was the fear?
The response of the victim has to be legitimate, and it has to match their supposed fear. Did the event take place at night? Was the victim completely alone? These factors contribute to the amount of fear the victim felt in the case. The events could have unfolded the same exact way in two separate scenarios, but one version happened at night in a back alley. The other happened in the middle of the day, surrounded by people. This is just one subtle way where the case could be read in two very different ways. Of course, other factors apply. You can also connect them on Facebook for more updates.
