Whether your client faces charges for simple assault, aggravated assault, sexual assault, or another type, there’s potential for them to spend several years in jail for the crime. However, not all assault charges are straightforward or clear-cut, and you might rely on some of the following defenses to improve the outcome of your cases. 

Self-Defense

Self-defense is one of the most common forms of defense any assault attorney will use to reduce charges or have them thrown out altogether. Self-defense in assault cases means that you can prove that the person your client attacked was a threat or form of harm against them. Often, you also need to prove that there was no reasonable way for them to leave the situation without assaulting them. 

However, the force used in self-defense must be comparable to the threat posed by the victim. If it’s deemed unreasonable, this assault defense strategy may not help reduce or throw out your client’s assault charges. 

Duress

Not all people charged with assault ever wanted to perform the assault. Instead, they were under threat themselves or at immediate risk of serious injury if they didn’t commit the crime. This stressful scenario might enable you to form a duress defense. 

Duress describes coercion, threats, force, or psychological pressure to compel someone to act against their interests or wishes. While challenging to prove, duress might be a valid defense if you have evidence to prove your client would otherwise not carry out the acts they did. 

Defense of Others

While self-defense is one of the most common assault charge defenses, the defense of others might also prove helpful. Defense of others describes the person charged with assault using force to defend someone they believe was at risk of harm. However, there must be reasonable grounds to establish this defense. 

Necessity

Some of the best assault attorneys can help their clients out of a challenging legal situation by using the necessity defense strategy. This means that they engaged in conduct that’s ordinarily a criminal offense, but they had no other option to avoid more significant injury to themselves or others. 

An example of necessity being used as a defense would be in the case of someone breaking into your home with a weapon. Attacking them might be the only way to prevent them from injuring you and your family and stealing your possessions. 

Consent

In special cases, consent can be a valid defense strategy for assisting your client in having their charges reduced or dropped. This defense is more common in physical contact sports, with bodily harm being deemed an element of the sport. 

Establishing consent is about proving the victim of a crime wasn’t opposed to that crime occurring. In a consent to bodily harm defense, there would also have to be no possibility of serious bodily injury, a benefit to justify the consent, and the harm would need to be reasonably foreseeable, with the risk accepted. 

Even the best assault attorneys can’t always prove their clients are innocent of assault charges. However, some of these defense strategies might prove helpful in situations where assaults are not always straightforward.