Personal Injury Defense

Battery | Assault | False Imprisonment

North Carolina Personal Injury Lawyers

Battery A battery is a harmful or offensive contact with another person that is not warranted or justified. Any object that is intimately connected with the person also counts as battery. What this means is that if Lexi is holding a paper plate, and Alley wrestles the plate from Lexi's hands, Alley has just committed a battery on Lexi. There is no brightline test. However, courts have ruled that throwing a rock at a vehicle constitutes an assault on the passengers and driver of that vehicle.

Assault An assault is an action that puts another into apprehension of an imminent battery or offensive contact. An example would be John throwing a stick at David. It does not matter whether the stick actually makes physical contact or not with David. Since the stick flew through the air close to David, it put him in apprehension of an imminent offensive contact. Please note that the offensive contact has to be imminent and immediate. If the offensive conduct is threatened days later or even hours later, no assault has occurred. It is also important to note that the apprehension has to be reasonable judged by the "reasonable man." Thus, if Crystal reaches in her purse unprovoked and pulls out some lipgloss, a bystander who honestly believes that she was pulling out a gun could not successfully file suit against her for assault.

False Imprisonment The standard case for an action of false imprisonment is the use of force to keep another in a bounded area. The length of time of the confinement is irrelevant, but the plaintiff must be aware of the confinement. In addition, there cannot be a reasonable means of escape clearly visible to the plaintiff. However, be aware that the plaintiff has no affirmative duty to search for an escape. Generally, the area of confinement must be a definite area, although that is not always the case. Courts have ruled that a forested area with no definite boundaries or a desert is a sufficiently defined area to constitute false imprisonment. For example, if James forces Margo into his jeep and drives her into the middle of the desert and lets her out, telling her that he will leave her there until she gives him $4000, there is a very good chance Margo will have a successful false imprisonment claim against James. He forcefully confined her to that desert with no reasonable means of escape.

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The attorneys and lawyers at Everett Law Firm, P.A. understands the issues of battery, assault, and false imprisonment in North Carolina.  Please feel free to email us or call our Chapel Hill law office, conveniently located in Chapel Hill, to discuss your battery, assault, or false imprisonment case. Our toll free phone number is (800) 942-8048.