Assault and Battery: You Can Sue for Damages Even Though They’re Also Crimes
When you hear about assault and battery, you probably think of crimes. And yes, assault and battery is a crime. But many people don’t realize that in addition to the state bringing criminal charges against someone who commits an assault and battery, a victim can also sue for assault and battery.
Intentional or Negligent?
Assault and battery differs from negligence cases in that when there is an assault or a battery, the action causing the victim harm is purposeful and intentional. That means that to prove assault and battery, the victim must show intent. Otherwise, the case may be one of simple, general negligence.
What is Assault and Battery?
Assault by itself, is a threat, and one that puts someone else in a reasonable and immediate fear of death or bodily harm. Battery is the actual unwanted and intentional touching of another. Assault and battery are usually used together, because when someone, for example, hits you, they both put an immediate fear of harm into you, and they also commit an unwanted touching.
Assault and battery aren’t the only intentional, potentially criminal acts, that can lead to civil liability. Sexual battery, kidnapping or false imprisonment, also can allow a victim to sue for damages.
Evidence of Intentionality
Often in a case, it can be hard to tell if someone acted intentionally, or whether an unwanted touching or striking was done accidentally, thus making it a negligence case.
For example, imagine a typical rear end car accident case. That is, almost always, a negligence case—most of us don’t purposely slam our car into the car in front of us.
But what if there was road rage involved? What if the car driving behind you was yelling, giving you rude gestures out the window, and screaming out of his window? Then, at the next light, he rams his car into the back of your car. Now, that sounds like something more than an accident. It sounds more like something the other driver did out of anger; maliciously and intentionally.
Necessity to Prove Damages
One major difference between negligence, and intentional torts like assault and battery, is the element of damages. In a negligence case, a victim must show that he or she suffered some damage or injury.
But in a lawsuit involving an intentional tort, the victim need not show any injuries or damage. Of course, the compensation that a victim receives from a jury will be reduced in the absence of any significant injury from the assault and battery, but the fact that there is no injury is not a legal bar to winning a case, the way that it would be in a negligence case.
Even in the absence of a major injury, a jury may still be angered enough at the Defendant’s intentional, violent, and malicious behavior that it could still award a significant damage award in an assault and battery injury case—even in the absence of any real injury or damage.
Call the Boston personal injury lawyers at The Law Office of Joseph Linnehan, Jr. today at 617-275-4200. We can help you get compensation if you are a victim of a crime, including an assault and battery.
