Assault & Battery Charges: Intentional Tort & Implications for Civil Action – Issues to Consider

Intentional tort is the term used to describe the action by which one person’s actions are intended to bring harm to another person or entity. When charged with civil action, if your legal documents indicate you are charged with assault and battery, this is a consideration of intentional tort.

Assault is the intentional, and unlawful, threat to do bodily harm to another individual against that person’s will or desire. If you are charged with an intentional tort that involves assault, you can be charged in both a criminal as well as a civil matter. While assault, in the criminal realm, is often punishable in terms of statutory requirements, civil tort allegations associated with assault are more complex to allege and, ultimately, this may work to your defense.

In a civil action involving intentional tort of assault, the person who is alleging you’ve committed assault must show there was a fear of life or personal safety and there must be an action that specifically shows there was some means by which to inflict harm. In other words, and individual simply believing you may commit harm is not enough to support civil intentional tort for assault; there must be action that would lead an ordinarily prudent person to be in fear. If the means to commit an action of harm is clearly present, you can be found guilty of intentional tort of assault without even doing any actual harm at all.

If you are facing criminal charges related to an assault, it is important to ask your attorney about the potential issues involving a civil action against you. Even if you did not commit any bodily harm to the person who is alleging assault, and no physical injury was sustained, a court may find you guilty of assault based on the intentional element of a tort action.

Civil suit involving an intentional tort such as assault is often confused with battery. Battery, as an intentional tort, is an entirely different charge, but can accompany assault as well. Assault, without battery, is an intentional tort nonetheless and your defense attorney will need to be prepared for the anticipation of this charge being brought against you. In most cases, the motivation of the person filing the civil charge of assault lies in seeking of monetary damages simply due to any emotional or psychological effects that arose out of the perception that bodily harm was eminent. Discussing this from both a civil and criminal aspect is important as assault is often an expanded litigation that can be somewhat easy to overcome with the right defense or legal counsel.