As a Houston attorney practicing in the state of Texas, I frequently work with clients that are charged with assault and battery.  These are serious charges that can result in jail time.  Depending on how the assault was committed, the charges may be elevated to aggravated assault that poses an even greater risk of spending years in jail.

According to our constitution, a citizen of the United States is innocent until proven guilty.  That means that if you have been arrested and charged with assault, you should qualify for release on bail pending your trial.  By working with a bail bonds company, you can pay a portion of the fee and go home to your family.  It is much easier to prepare for court when you are out on bail and coming into trial on your own accord, makes you look like a free person instead of a guilty one.  We recommend taking this option whenever possible.

We can meet with you immediately upon your arrest or afterwards, when you are out on bail.  Immediately, we will start to prepare your defense.  As a Houston attorney, the preparation work we do ahead of the trial is often what determines the outcome.  Hours of research, case preparation and witness interviews must be conducted before ever stepping foot in a courtroom.  In order to get started, we will ask you a variety of questions in order to learn more about what happened and the circumstances leading up to the event in question.

While we are preparing your defense and gathering evidence, the prosecutor will be doing the same.  In order to get a conviction, they must prove one of the following:

1. You touched the victim knowing that your actions would provoke them and be viewed as offensive.  An example of this would be shoving someone and that shove leading to a full on fight.  Since shoving is considered to be offensive, you should have reasonably known that it would provoke them to retaliate.
2. You caused someone bodily harm either on purpose or due to your recklessness.
3. You threatened to physically harm someone.

Since a prosecutor only needs to prove that you threatened someone in order to get an assault conviction, hiring the right attorney is incredibly important. We need to look for and interview eye witnesses that can speak to the contrary.  The prosecutor will have witnesses that place you in a bad light. Our job is to locate witnesses or other evidence like video that can be used to demonstrate your innocence.  Additionally, since you can be convicted by provoking someone, we also need to demonstrate that they started it and not the other way around.  This is why knowing all of the facts is necessary for building a strong defense.

As a Houston attorney, we can also help if you committed an assault with a weapon. When a weapon is used a basic assault charge can become a felony conviction and lead to up to 99 years in jail.  Don’t take a risk by working with a public defender.  You need someone experienced on your side.