Understanding compensation for injuries caused by assault
Seeking Compensation for Injuries Caused by Common Law Assault and Battery
I’m Tulsa personal injury lawyer Mike Ashworth. Today we’re going to talk about common law assault and battery. What is common law? Common law means that most American law is derived from the laws of our little old ancestors to quote my cousin Vinnie in the UK, Great Britain and England.
Assault is an unwanted perception that you are about to touch someone in a harmful way. Doing this like I’m going to hit you, that’s an assault. Now if I’m 100 feet away, it’s not because it’s not realistic I’m going to be able to hit you from that far unless I’m a superhero. But what’s going to happen is if I do this like I’m going to hit you, that’s an assault.
Now what’s a battery? A battery is an unconsidered two-touching. So the assault would be I’m going to hit you, you son of a gun. And the battery would be I hit you, you son of a gun. That’s an assault and battery.
Seeking Compensation for Assault and Battery Injuries
What happens if you’re out at a restaurant or at a bar or let’s say for example it’s political season and you’re standing in line to vote and you’re there getting ready to exercise your due diligence as a citizen of these great United States and you’re wearing a so-and-so sticky button on your coat and the other person is wearing the other so-and-so’s sticky button on their coat and you start having a political debate in the line as you’re waiting to vote.
First, you’re not supposed to be wearing that stuff into the poll place anyway. But having said that, you get into it, well my guy’s the best, my lady’s the best, boom, boom, boom, boom and all of a sudden somebody loses their cool and they shove you. Okay, they shove you. Now that’s an assault and that’s a battery.
We have the perception of touch, harmful touch coming and we have the touch, the unwanted touch. It doesn’t have to hurt you seriously but in this particular case what happens is you’re off balance, you’re not expecting to get shoved in a voting poll line and you go down and you hit your head.
Seek Legal Help for Assault and Battery Injuries
Now somebody has to call the ambulance and what happens, a head injury is always one of the most concerning because there’s a chance for neurological damage or impact. For example, if you slip and fall in a residential care facility, it’s mandatory they have to ship you to the hospital. If it’s a head strike, it doesn’t matter what you’re saying, I know who I am, I know where I am, I know why I am, it doesn’t matter. They’re going to ship you.
So that is an example of an assault and battery and an injury and that is compensable but there’s a statute of limitations. You’ve got to be careful on those SOLs is what we call them because the statute of limitations for an intentional tort, where I intend you some harm or no good is one year. Now normally for negligence like an automobile accident, two years.
Take Action and Contact Us for a Free Consultation
So it proves a point that I’ve shared for almost 40 years in this business. The best time to call a lawyer is right as it happens, immediately. Let them walk you through it. It may be that you don’t need their services down the road, it may be that you do need their services down the road. But either way, you’ll get the better result if you call immediately.
Call me, Oklahoma personal injury attorney Mike Ashworth, TulsaPersonalInjuryLawyer.Pro, 918-924-5528, for a free consultation.
