Assault

Las Vegas Assault Attorney

Defending Clients from Criminal Charges

If you were arrested for allegedly assaulting someone in Las Vegas, you should contact a trusted criminal defense attorney immediately for legal help with your defense case. If you don’t fight your charges and end up convicted of this crime, you could suffer serious consequences that include jail time and fines.

At ATAC Law LLC, we understand that a criminal charge doesn’t tell the whole story about what happened, so we’re committed to fighting serious charges on behalf of our clients. If you want a chance to avoid a conviction when it comes to your assault case, call our Las Vegas law office to discuss your legal options with caring attorneys.

How Does Nevada Law Define Assault?

Before your Las Vegas criminal case gets started, you should understand what your assault charge means and the penalties you face if convicted. Nevada’s criminal laws state that assault is the unlawful act of threatening to physically harm someone, making them fear immediate bodily harm.

Note that this charge doesn’t usually involve physical contact, so you can face assault charges even if you don’t touch the victim. Some examples of assault include verbally threatening to hurt someone or making a threatening gesture, such as holding up your fist or throwing an object in their direction.

As long as the victim believes you have the intent and ability to hurt them at that moment, causing them to experience reasonable apprehension of physical injuries, you can be arrested and charged with assault in Las Vegas, Nevada. At that point, you should talk to an experienced attorney to begin planning your criminal defense strategy for a chance at the best possible outcome in your case.

What Is Assault and Battery?

If you not only threatened the victim but also made physical contact with them and caused bodily harm, you’ll face assault and battery charges. This is because while threatening physical injury is assault, following through on that threat with violent physical touch is battery.

While assault causes fear and psychological harm to the victim, battery causes physical harm that can put them in the hospital, so the criminal penalties for assault and battery tend to be severe. Skilled lawyers know how to defend their clients during assault and battery cases, so contact our Las Vegas law office if you’ve been charged with assault and battery.

What Is Aggravated Assault or Battery?

If there are aggravating factors in your case, you could face even more serious charges, such as aggravated assault. For example, if you’re accused of threatening someone with a deadly weapon or assaulting the victim while committing a serious offense, such as kidnapping, robbery, or rape, you could end up with aggravated assault charges.

Similarly, you could be charged with aggravated battery if you allegedly caused substantial injury to the victim or used a deadly weapon to hurt them. This charge could also apply if the battery victim is in a protected class, which includes police officers, firefighters, corrections officers, taxi drivers, doctors, judges, and more. An experienced lawyer can clarify your assault or battery charges for you if you have questions, so call our Las Vegas criminal defense law firm for legal help.

What Are the Criminal Penalties for Assault in Las Vegas, Nevada?

If you’re convicted of assault in Nevada, you could be sentenced to fines, jail time, community service, and other legal consequences. Your specific penalties will depend on the crime you’re convicted of, your criminal record, and the circumstances surrounding your case.

If you’re convicted of simple assault, this misdemeanor charge usually results in up to six months in the county jail and a fine of up to $1,000. For some assault cases, the judge might believe a lighter sentence is appropriate and will order community service instead of jail, but this will depend on your criminal record and your lawyer’s negotiation skills.

If you’re charged with aggravated assault because the assault victims are in a protected class, you’ll face a gross misdemeanor charge. The penalties for this are slightly more severe than simple assault since you could be punished by up to one year in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.

On the other hand, you could be charged with a felony if your aggravated assault case involved a deadly weapon. This escalation means you could end up sentenced to one to six years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines. This penalty is in addition to the consequences of being labeled a felon, including the loss of your civil rights and difficulty finding housing or employment in the future.

If you want to avoid these serious penalties, you should contact a trusted defense attorney for help moving through Nevada’s criminal justice system. At ATAC Law LLC, our legal team has assisted numerous clients with their assault and battery cases, and we’re eager to do the same for you when you contact our Las Vegas law office.

Do Assault Victims Have the Right to Sue Their Attacker?

If you’ve been accused of assault or battery in Las Vegas, Nevada, it’s essential to be aware that the victim has the right to bring a personal injury lawsuit against you. This type of civil lawsuit is separate from a criminal case, so the outcome of one case won’t affect the other.

However, just as you should hire a lawyer to defend yourself from criminal charges, you should also hire one if you find out there’s a civil lawsuit against you. After all, if the civil case is successful, you could end up owing the victim money for any expenses they claim to have after the alleged assault. If you don’t have the financial resources the victim requests in the personal injury claim, they might try to get the money from your employer if the alleged assault happened while you were working. If it occurred on your property, their civil claim might request financial compensation from your homeowner’s insurance provider.

The typical personal injury claim attempts to compensate the victim for all economic damages associated with the assault, including:

  • Medical bills
  • Future medical bills
  • Lost wages
  • Property damage
  • Reduced earning capacity

Victims of assault can also rely on an assault claim to pursue non-economic damages, which can include:

  • Pain and suffering
  • Emotional distress
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • PTSD
  • Humiliation
  • Loss of enjoyment of life

In some cases, victims can also get punitive damages, which are meant to punish the attacker so they’re unlikely to commit the offense again. However, punitive damages aren’t as common as economic and non-economic damages in personal injury lawsuits.

In addition, when injury victims seek compensation for lost wages, medical expenses, emotional distress, and more, they must first prove that the assault against them financially affected them. For example, if they owe money for medical expenses related to the alleged threats, or if they lost their job due to the emotional distress of the incident, they must be prepared to show their medical records, billing statements, and other evidence.

If you’re concerned about facing an assault claim in addition to your criminal charges, contact our Las Vegas law office for legal advice from trusted lawyers. We understand how much your assault and battery case can affect several aspects of your life, as your freedom and financial situation could be at stake, so you can count on us to work toward the best possible outcome for your case.

How Can a Las Vegas Assault Lawyer Defend You from This Charge?

If you’re accused of committing assault in Las Vegas, you should contact an experienced attorney to represent you for a chance to get your charges dismissed or reduced. The goal of your case will be to make it difficult for the prosecution team to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that certain details are true. In particular, the prosecutor will need to prove to the judge that you threatened to make physical contact with the victim to cause injuries, with the intention of making them fear bodily harm at that moment.

Fortunately, when you contact our law office, you can get legal help from Las Vegas lawyers who have successfully handled countless criminal cases. Our dedicated legal team is prepared to show there is not sufficient evidence that you committed the crime as charged. We’ll examine the details of your specific case before deciding which defense angle to use, as the right one depends on the evidence in your case.

One of the most common defense angles for assault and battery is self-defense. This angle means you threatened someone in self-defense because you feared for your physical safety due to the other person’s words or actions.

Another defense option for an assault accusation is that the victim wasn’t scared of immediate harm when you allegedly assaulted them. After all, for a threat to be considered assault, it has to result in fear of physical harm. If the victim didn’t know about the threat, such as if they didn’t hear about it until later or didn’t interpret it as a threat at that moment, it’s not assault. Similarly, if the verbal threat, gesture, or offensive contact was accidental, it’s not considered assault since it must be an intentional act meant to cause fear.

In some cases, assault or battery victims make false accusations in order to harm someone’s reputation or receive financial compensation by bringing a civil case against them. If an investigation reveals the allegations are untrue, our team will gather evidence to try to prove this to the judge to get the charges dropped and avoid a conviction on your record.

At ATAC Law LLC, we’ve spent years defending clients from serious criminal charges in Nevada, including simple assault, attempted battery, aggravated assault, battery, and more. No matter what criminal offense you’ve been accused of committing, our lawyers are ready to protect you from the legal penalties you’re facing. If you want to schedule an initial consultation with our team, call 725-217-4753 as soon as possible after your arrest in Las Vegas.