Defense Strategies For Chantilly Assault Charges

No matter the degree of severity, an assault charge can carry severe consequences that have the potential to impact an individual long term. For this reason, it is important that any individual facing an assault charge in Chantilly contacts an experienced assault attorney, who can employ a wide variety of assault defense strategies to effectively reduce or dismiss any penalties you are facing.

Types of Assault

There are a few different kinds of assault charges that can be brought in Chantilly. These vary depending on the severity of the assault, who the victim is, and whether or not there are any injuries directly related to the assault.

For example, somebody would be charged with simple assault and battery if they were in a situation where they are accused of hitting someone else, but no serious injury resulted. If the alleged defendant lives with the alleged victim, or the alleged victim is a family member or household member, it is considered a domestic assault and battery case and will be in a juvenile and domestic relations court. The latter charge is taken more seriously than the former.

The situations in which somebody is involved in an assault and battery will likely determine the way an assault is charged. If there are serious injuries or if it is a situation where somebody is accused of using a weapon, there will be enhanced penalties. This will most likely be charged as a felony offense rather than just a misdemeanor assault.

Aggravated Assault

To bring forward a charge of aggravated assault, the action is going to have and share the same definitions of regular assault, but with an additional enhancement of some sort.

For example, a situation where somebody is accused of assaulting somebody else with a malicious wounding element, such as some type of stabbing, will be treated as a felony. These types of charges will be treated incredibly seriously, and require a strong Chantilly assault defense strategy to properly combat.

A charge will be more serious if there are any involvement of weapons, or the alleged victim is someone of particular vulnerability or an established authority figure.  If the victim was somebody of a young age, some kind of public officer, or a school teacher for example, the case will be more seriously prosecuted in terms of an aggravated assault charge.

Building a Defense

One assault defense strategy that an attorney may employ in Chantilly is the argument of self-defense. This is referred to as an affirmative defense in Virginia. Once an individual claims self-defense, it has to be justifiable. It is important to note that these arguments can sometimes be tricky, because it involves the admission of assault.

If an individual is pursuing a self-defense argument, they are admitting that they have committed an illegal act but are asking the court to excuse the behavior because of a justifiable reason. Virginia law dictates what is and is not a justifiable action, and can determine if an individual responded too much in the situation at hand.

Building a self-defense case is both a complicated and serious undertaking for an assault attorney. Therefore, it is very important to work with somebody who knows a variety of assault defense strategies in Chantilly and how to effectively employ them.

Benefits of an Attorney

A lawyer can defend clients from assault charges in a variety of ways. The most important thing is for an individual to identify the evidence against them in their assault case so the attorney can properly craft an assault defense strategy.

If the situation is one involving one individual’s statement against another, an attorney will be able to pick apart the other person’s case and plot all of the inconsistencies that exist. At trial, the lawyer will be able to provide an effective cross-examination to help show that the other individual is either lying, mistaken, or the action in question does not warrant a charge of assault.

Additionally, gathering other witnesses and taking any physical evidence into consideration will be crucial in building a strong assault defense strategy.