Home Aggravated Assault What Happens When You Are Charged With Aggravated Assault?

What Happens When You Are Charged With Aggravated Assault?

What Happens When You Are Charged With Aggravated Assault?

In cases of assault and battery, the stiffest penalties can be expected from the filing of aggravated assault charges, which describe attacks of an unusually violent and severe nature. The very nature of the attacks is determined by the means through which they are accomplished or the stated result they are intended to attain. 
 
 
In measuring the legal implications that can be expected to stem from the filing of aggravated assault charges, relevant considerations to keep in mind include the question of whether any kind of weapon was used in commissioning the assault, the suffering of any injuries as a result of the attack, and any prior legal charges, particularly other occurrences of aggravated assault charges, have been incurred by the defendant.
 
 
Aggravated assault charges are commonly filed for the purposes of differentiating such an attack from one which involved some form of threatening action toward an individual. In such a way, it will also not have clearly involved the proposal or attempt to cause a form of injury or distress considered to be markedly and unusually severe. 
 
 
Thus, the legal penalties sought and, if successfully pursued, imposed on an individual found guilty of aggravated assault charges will generally be adjusted as is deemed relevant to the injuries suffered or threatened in the case. 
 
 
A case of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, on the other hand, may not have involved any actual injuries, but because of the highly menacing and potentially very harmful nature of a weapon such as a firearm, the presence of such a device in the making of aggravated assault charges is likely to boost the severity and length of the penalties sought by prosecutors. Instances of assault without a deadly weapon, with a person's body or simple tools, and leading to significant injuries are also likely to incur high penalties.
 
 
Particularly important in such cases is whether prosecutors filing aggravated assault charges choose to pursue them as felonies or misdemeanors. The factors listed above are likely to be deciding factors. Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, for instance, is likely to be pursued as a felony, and if successfully prosecuted lead thus to incarceration in a state or federal institution, as opposed to misdemeanors, in which incarceration generally occurs in a local jail and may be supplanted by such measures as the requirement of community service. 
 
 
As alternatives to or supplements to the various forms of imprisonment which may result from a conviction on aggravated assault charges, lesser punishments may be found in the form of requiring alterations to a person's way of living. For instance, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is likely to cost the offender the right to own or have on his or her person a firearm or other kind of weapon. Anger-management classes may also be required of people found guilty on aggravated assault charges, as well as various financial demands.