Once one experiences assault of any kind, they most frequently want to press charges against their assailants in order to have their own peace of mind and feel protected. By the definition, an assault occurs when one person makes any kind of actions that put another person in a fearful situation in which he or she may reasonably be afraid of receiving battery. Battery, by the definition, is when a person receives any kind of bodily harm. You need to know that if you were assaulted and did not call the police or the police officers did not come to the crime scene in time, you still have legal right to press charges against the assailant or assailants by following the appropriate channels.
File Charges in Your Local Police Department:
As you might have already figured out, the most popular and basically the only reliable way to press charges against someone after an assault is to fill them with your local police departments. According to professional criminal lawyer Jeff Mass Toronto, when you visit the local police department, you need to express clearly what you want to do and after that provide the police officers with the required information. Some piece of information will be required only to fill out your assault report, for instance the victim’s and the assailant’s names, addresses of both of them (of course if known), location of the occurred assault, the date and time, how it occurred and some more. In case you do not know the assailant or assailants you will be asked to describe them.
Prosecution:
After the police receive all the provided details of your case, you will be handed copies of the reports and papers filed. Then all your complaints are taken to the prosecutor’s office where it will be determined whether or not the prosecutor believes that you provided enough information to prosecute the assailant. In case of the sufficient materials, the judge will issue an arrest warrant for the assailant’s arrest. In addition, the police officers will also investigate the crime further and deeper in order to obtain any additional evidence.
Orders of Protection:
A lot of people are ashamed to confess in them being assaulted or are afraid to file charges on their assailants. Professional lawyers from Mass Tsang LLP explain that when you fill assault charges, you can always seek to obtain orders of protection from the court if you believe that your life is in danger. As a result the court will restrain orders that will result in the assailant’s arrest if violated. It means that your assailant will be restricted from coming to you or the locations you are expected to be closer than a prescribed number of meters.
You should understand that in many cases pressing assault charges can appear to be the only way to put your incident or incidents behind and get a sense of closure. But it is very important to follow all the procedures to reach the desired result and feeling of safety.