Assault & Battery Attorneys

Most people walk into an assault or battery case assuming the two words mean the same thing. They don't, and the distinction is decisive. Under Florida law, assault is the threat — words or actions that put another person in well-founded fear of imminent violence. Battery is the actual contact. A case can be both, one, or neither, and each carries a different statute, a different maximum, and a different defense. Our criminal defense attorneys work the assault-versus-battery line carefully, alongside the deadly-weapon, domestic-violence, and self-defense issues that decide most of these cases. Call us at (386) 255-1400 24 hours a day for a free consultation.

Assault and battery are different crimes, and they escalate differently

Florida codifies assault and battery as separate offenses with separate paths to felony exposure. A loud argument that never becomes physical can still be charged as assault. A push without warning is a battery without an assault. A bar fight, a domestic argument, or a road-rage incident can produce both. Knowing which charge the State is actually pursuing — and which one the facts will support at trial — is the first move on every case.

The Florida assault and battery tiers

When the case is charged as domestic violence

Battery, assault, and aggravated battery cases between household or family members are charged under the same statutes but carry a different track entirely. Florida defines "domestic violence" broadly under Fla. Stat. § 741.28 to include spouses, former spouses, persons related by blood or marriage, persons residing together as a family, and parents of a child in common.

Three practical consequences flow from the DV designation. First, the no-contact / stay-away order at first appearance can put you out of your home immediately, before the case is resolved. Second, under § 741.283, conviction for misdemeanor battery DV carries a mandatory minimum of five days in county jail when intentional bodily harm is found. Third, even a withhold of adjudication on a DV battery generally bars sealing or expunging the record later under § 943.0584. These are not cases to plead through casually.

Self-defense and Stand Your Ground

Many Florida assault and battery cases turn on self-defense. Under Fla. Stat. § 776.012, a person is justified in using or threatening non-deadly force to defend against an imminent unlawful threat, with no duty to retreat from any place they have a lawful right to be. The "Stand Your Ground" framework also gives qualifying defendants a pretrial immunity hearing under § 776.032, where the court decides — before any jury is empaneled — whether the use of force was justified. If granted, the case ends at the immunity stage.

Stand Your Ground is fact-specific. Whether you started the encounter, whether you were lawfully present, whether the force you used was proportional, and how the testimony lines up with the physical evidence all decide whether the hearing is worth raising. It is also a defense the State works hard to defeat in jurisdictions where prosecutors view the statute skeptically. Bringing it up at the right time matters.

Florida's Stand Your Ground case law keeps developing. So does the defense playbook.

The 2017 burden-shifting amendment to § 776.032 changed who has to prove what at a Stand Your Ground hearing, and Florida appellate courts continue to refine what "lawfully present," "imminent," and "great bodily harm" mean on the ground. A defense that lifts language from an older opinion can miss the way local prosecutors are framing the same facts today. We work each assault and battery case on the current statute, the current case law, and an honest read of how Volusia and Flagler are charging these cases this quarter.