You and a former friend had a bad falling out that resulted in you getting shoved to the ground and suffering an injury. You want to bring this case to court as an assault situation. However, you need to make sure you understand the definition of assault and whether this is a true personal injury situation.
A Shove May Count as Assault
Unwanted physical contact with another person is often a crime, depending on the circumstances of the contact and what occurred after the contact was over. For example, a shove is often considered a type of assault as long as it caused apprehension in you as the situation occurred.
The concept of apprehension is often the toughest for people to understand in these cases. The idea behind it is that the actions of the person who injured you made you believe that you were going to be harmed. The type of harm doesn't have to be physical and is often emotional instead.
A shove to the ground could be considered a behavior that caused apprehension because you may have felt your heart race as you fell to the ground and were afraid of further physical action by your former friend. If they then threatened you, there is a good chance that your shove may be considered assault. However, your case is far from open and shut.
Proving Assault
Though a strong shove may count as assault in some courts, you may find that you have a harder time proving your case than you might expect. That's because there are many elements that you must consider when proving assault — simply getting hurt is not enough here.
For example, you have to prove that the person's reaction to you was not a reasonable way to behave. If you had instigated a fight and the individual shoved you in response to an argument or a threat, the court may not believe that their reaction was unreasonable or something meant to harm you.
Just as importantly, you have to show that you were in true fear for yourself when the assault occurred. A simple shove may not seem like that big of a deal to a court, especially if you don't get that injured by it. You'll need evidence showing that the situation was more severe than it seems, such as eye-witness testimony.
So if you were injured after getting shoved by a former friend and you want to improve your chances of winning, you should seriously consider talking to a personal injury lawyer right away. These attorneys will give you the best chances of winning this type of case and getting financial compensation.
