What happens if your in a fight and the Law?

For your action to be legal in a confrontation, you must be able to demonstrate that you were in fear for your safety. Many people get caught out by this in their later dealings with the police & the courts. It's not enough to simply detail what aggressive acts your assailant made towards you & what you did about it. A court would also want to hear whether there was anything you could've done to avoid the situation getting to the point when an attack would be made. There's no magic formula for defending yourself against an allegation or counter allegation made against you in a court of law, but describing what you did as what you honestly felt to be right, under the circumstances should help a great deal.

 

You don't have to fear violence, you merely have to apprehend it (i.e. the fact that you knew you could beat seven kinds of crap out of your attacker doesn't mean you weren't entitled to defend yourself). Also, in English law there is no duty to retreat.

 

Good luck when you're next in court, then.

 

Very true!

From what I know, which is fairly relevant to the current time in England, everyones made very pertinent points.

Just a couple more...

Using any sort of physical actions in an altercation with an assailant will need your justification which will probably be written up at some point. Generally if you were in fear for your safety or your property and you can describe that fear for good reasons (ie the aggressor wa using strong language towards you, his fists were clenched, they were shouting at you, their teeth were clenched, they were constantly walking towards you, they had invaded your personal space before by walking towards you, they were mimicking going to their pocket and pulling out something to hurt you) and there are witnnesses/cctv that shows this then you should be okay.

If you use physical force to defend yourself for any reason then I would strongly suggest that you contact the police as soon as possible, even if you hurt them to a) make sure they don't try to hurt someone else later, b) police may try and make sure everyone involved is safe including assailant/s and c) you cover your ass for any sort of counter allegation that they may try to make against you later on. You may be asked if you wish to proceed the matter, you don't have to but at least the police will note that you have made the allegation in the first place. If you do wish to proceed the matter then justify any action you have used using fear of personal safety and property, using the above.

If the police turn up whilst you're fighting someone then expect to get nicked. (Not saying you will but don't be surprised if you do.) Don't argue with them, when you get to the police station just get a lawyer (you will be offered one on arrival at the police station) and sort it out in interview.

Regarding the level of physical force you use in an altercation...again its will be down to your justification which will again be written down at some point.

 

Just tell them you have 911 on speeddial.

Or carry one of those beepers around, the sound almost bursts your eardrums when you pull the chain out lol.

Earplugs

 

I am a law student and what I have said is a statement of facts, not opinions. Do you have any citations to support your arguments that apprehension is insufficient or that there is a duty to retreat? Only I know that according to R v Fagan the mere apprehension of force as opposed to fear of it constitutes an assault, meaning that you would be entitled to defend yourself, and that in R v Bird it was held that there was no legal duty to retreat.

 

british law .... " reasonable force" was it reasonable what force you used to escape/restrain your attack.

and it also depends what mood the judge is in lol.

 

You did the right thing, if your confident in your martial arts skills and in yourself, you have nothing to prove to idiots like you describe. And yes the police could even charge you with assault, and maybe with a deadly weapon. That would depend on how much you knew. Now if they came at you, that would be different. The smart thing is to always avoid conflict. The sword of no sword!

 

In general at most events they just hurl you all in a Van or whatnot and send you off, simpler to figure it out later.

In that situation most probably you would have gotted into trouble, because technically speaking you would have provoked the conflict when yu could have avoided it just like you did. That is of course if the police chose to scrutinize the scene

 

I Agree...

That's right. There are a ton of people out there who would tell you that you would have self defense on your side, but that may not necessarily be true. Self defense laws are really shaky, and vary depending on where you are. The best thing to do if you have to fight is to take them down as quickly as possible then run and yell for help. That way, if there are any witnesses, they can say you were defending youself, and not pepetuating the fight. You want it to be clear to anyone standing by to know who started what because if they say they didn't know, then you're both getting locked up.
<Link removed>

 

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!

Half the stuff they sell is illegal in many states in the US, and it's irresponsible of the owner of that site not to post that.

 

Plus try and get a stun gun
(not a tazer) on someone long enough to do more than **** them off. They are great for torture - **** poor for defence.

 

Please do not provide links to sites that sell illegal weapons

 

thanks, Sever.

 

I have a friend that bent a guys elbow backwards on his first counterattack. A group of college frat type guys came in and one came up and threw a punch at the back of his head. He turned around, the guy threw a second punch. He grabbed the punch, held it against his chest, and turned his shoulder into the guys elbow. The guys freaked out and ran. The guys parents pressed charges against my friend. He managed to get off without any problems. His lawyer basically told him to keep repeating that he felt his life was in danger. He explained that there was 4 or 5 of them and that the others could have jumped in at any time so he felt the need to debilitate any of them as quickly as possible.

 

God bless my father soul

He always told me to stick up for myself and man did i ever encouter jerks like this everywhere i go too, even at my job.

Its really hard to deal with idiots and at some point you either comfront them with you first or your mouth.

I have a very bad temper so its hard for me to confront with my mouth, i always get in some bad mouthing and end up challenging the idiot that usually walks away.

For me the only way to get respect is to really stand up to someone, many of them are chicken ****t and scared to fight its sad but true.

And yes you can get in to trouble with the law if you hit someone, i know a guy that got 2000$ for breaking someone else jaw, the main problem is that the guy deserve that punch.

The law is weird i really miss the old tae kwon do days when we settled our scores Saturday morning during sparring class.

I know that what i am saying might sound aggressive but i dont beleive i talking to someone, i did this many times and the person just laught at you, while when you give them a good beating they respect you.

BTW i did get my fair share of beatings myself, and i did get knock out couple of times too, i dont like fighting or getting all mad but if it has to come to this then be it.

 

The Law wins

Gotta admire the man for being honest….

Florida's got it right. Bravo for Sheriff Judd !!!

POLK COUNTY FLORIDA SHERIFF GRADY JUDD

Some "dirtbag" in Polk County Florida who got pulled over in a routine traffic stop ended up "executing" the deputy who
stopped him. The deputy was shot eight times, including once behind his right ear at close range.
Another deputy was wounded and a police dog killed.
A statewide manhunt ensued.
The low-life was found hiding in a wooded area with his gun. SWAT team officers fired and hit the guy 68 times.
Now here's the kicker:
Naturally, the media asked why they shot him 68 times. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, told the Orlando Sentinel :

"That's all the bullets we had !!"

 

State Law Applies

I live in TN and the law used to be that if you had a chance to flee and didn't you could be held accountable as well as your attacker. My old Sifu was a Carroll County Police Officer and had told us several situations we might find ourselves in that could turn on us when the legal system came into play. However, I have recently heard that TN has changed its law so that people aren't as apprehensive about defending themselves. I might have been told wrong though. My best friend recently ended up in a fight with someone. He had been drinking under-age (20yrs old) and ended up in a fight with a guy he was an acquaintance of. My friend said he wasn't going to hit the guy until he tried to hit my friend. The guy knocked him down and ended up beating his face in. My friend had to have his orbital reconstructed, same with his nose, had to have his teeth wired in, and sinus reopened. They had both been drinking so it would only have gotten them into more trouble(have both been cited MULTIPLE TIMES) so they let it lay. My friend ended up having to pay right at $2000 bucks to get his face fixed.....I would rather take the chance of defending myself and maybe going to court than to take a beating like that.

However, if it came to defending myself, I will punish them until I feel safe. That may mean broken leg, arm, or choked out. I have been in a few tussles but nothing that was on a grand scale but I always love to hit first and hit hard. I will not let someone get in my face or up close, if they come into my space in a threatening manner, I am going to hit them. I believe if you hit hard enough, someone who is just looking to bully you will most likely back off.

I have a bad temper but I am a very nice and laid-back guy. I will walk away from just about anything before fighting but as soon as I feel that fighting is gonna be the only way out of it, I start it.

In all of the situations I've been in, its ended up with attacker being thrown to the floor of getting put in a lock. They are less eager to fight after that.

 

This might sound kind of stupid but, if your around high school age and get into a fight, what happens concerning the law?Just curious..

 

I almost got into a fight tonight during a night out, but opted to walk away from it.

Walking back to my car and these two guys approach me from behind. The one of them walked right up to me and started asking 'where you from?' - I'm guessing he hoped I was from out of town. He then started 'interrogating' me to see if I was gay confused which I denied.His friend kind of stood a few yards back looking a bit uneasy. He started going chest-to-chest with me but I just eased him aside and carried on my way.

I almost wished he had hit me, because I know for a fact I could have taken him out (as egoistic as it sounds, I became quite good at MMA after doing it for a few years so I know what I'm capable of, and based on his pushes he wouldn't have been much of a match). Having said that though, how am I to know if he has a knife or anything?

To sum up: Avoid the fight, walk away and you won't have any trouble