BATTERY

Battery is a general term that is often misunderstood. Most people assume that in order to be charged with battery, they have to come into direct physical contact with another person, but under Illinois state laws, battery also includes any case where someone caused bodily harm to another individual, even if they never came into direct contact.

In the state of Illinois, battery is defined as the act of intentionally causing bodily harm to another person or making physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature. In most cases, it is classified as a misdemeanor, although when serious physical harm is done, it may be classified as a felony. 

You can be charged with battery if a prosecutor shows past a reasonable doubt that you intentionally, and with no legal justification, hurt, injured, or made physical contact of a provoking character with someone else.

If you hit or touched someone or used something physical to touch them or placed something upon them, you can be charged with battery if you were not acting in self-defense or as a peace or police officer. The reason for this is that the contact was intentional on your part, the victim did not consent to the contact, and the contact caused harm or insult to the victim.

Whether you had a physical altercation with even a friend or partner, or just pushed back against someone attempting to provoke you even if they pushed first, you can be facing a battery charge even if they are obviously lying or exaggerating. It can be a common charge made in divorce or domestic violence cases, filed just to muddy and complicate things.

You do not have to hit or slap someone to have committed battery.

 Examples of battery with no direct contact include:

 You can be guilty of battery by:

• Spitting on somebody
• Throwing a bucket of water on somebody 
• Throwing a drink in somebody’s face

Simple battery involving physical contact includes acts such as these:

• hitting or even slapping somebody 
• hitting somebody with some object, like a chair or stick
• intentionally causing somebody to trip somebody if that results in an injury. 
• pushing or shoving somebody
• forcefully grabbing somebody by his or her clothes or hair 

The felony charge of aggravated battery can come about if you cause serious injury or it accompanies a charge of assault if you make the victim apprehensive you are about to batter or hurt him or her. 

How we can defend you if you are charged with battery

•  We can file motions to dispute the admissibility of evidence. There are many motions we can file to delay the trial and plea negotiating while we look for exculpatory evidence or find a way to dispute the alleged victim’s character or testimony.
•  We can thus try to get as much evidence and witnesses excluded as possible via a "motion to suppress", but prosecutors foresee this and often file multiple counts and charges. We will dispute as many of those as possible. Did the prosecutor use evidence which should have been suppressed but was not, such as continued questioning after you were read your rights and asked for a lawyer? 
•  We can file “motions to suppress” relevant evidence if it was improperly obtained in such ways against your rights or if it is questionable. 
•  If it is ruled admissible by the judge, we can further argue at trial that the evidence or testimony is incorrect or fabricated against you thereby creating a reasonable doubt in a jury's mind that you may be innocent.

This is where having an experienced attorney to represent you and negotiate and speak for you can save years of your life and tens of thousands of fines and/or foregone income. It is worth it, and you deserve a good defense. 

Other lawyers so often talk of how they will “aggressively fight for you.” They are doing nothing more than basically quoting from the American Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Conduct about the principle of a “lawyer's obligation zealously to protect and pursue a client's legitimate interests, within the bounds of the law.” When you hire Phillip Haddad as your criminal defense attorney in Chicago or elsewhere in its suburban area, he will not only do his professional duty to zealously represent you but will get you the justice you deserve. His extensive experience in criminal defense will help you avoid conviction or else minimize the penalties. Call criminal defense attorney Phillip Haddad at 708-833-3505 as soon as possible if you are in legal trouble.