GENERAL ASSAULT AND BATTERY

Assault and/or battery are two separate and distinct offenses that are commonly mistaken as the same offense. A battery occurs when a person has caused a harmful or offensive touching of another individual. An assault is putting another in fear of a battery. More plainly stated, it means attempting to commit an uncompleted battery.

These two offenses are commonly charged and often misunderstood. Particularly with a battery, it is a common misunderstanding that to be guilty of a battery, one must cause some type of physical injury. However, simply causing and unwanted touching is sufficient to be convicted under the law of battery. This has unfortunately led to many law enforcement officers simply overcharging individuals for even the slightest of “offensive touching”. Under Virginia law, alleged victims can also go to a magistrate’s office and “swear out” a warrant for arrest, claiming that they have been assaulted. Sadly, this has been wrongly used by many individuals who are seeking to use the court system to assist them in their feud against another.

Due to the fact that the Commonwealth will attempt to use various different tactics to prove that the accused is guilty, it is vitally important to have counsel experienced.

The attorneys at The Simms Firm, PLC have extensive experience in handling assault and battery charges. Our attorneys are knowledge of the defense that can be used in an attempt to get the filed charges dismissed. The most common defense is self-defense of self or others. In many cases, the accused was provoked into the physical altercation by the alleged victim. Our attorneys can investigate and bring out the facts that show that the accused acted in self defense, so that the charges against you can be dismissed. If the alleged victim has a history of physical violence and anger management issues, our attorneys will aggressively act to ensure that this information is presented as we defend the accused against assault and battery charges. If you have been wrongly accused by an alleged victim who has gone to a magistrate’s office, the attorneys at The Simms Firm, PLC will expose their bias and untruthfulness.