Assault & Domestic
Assault, assault causing bodily harm, aggravated assault, and the domestic charges that put you out of your own home within hours of a phone call.
What this charge involves
Assault is defined broadly. It covers the slightest intentional touching without consent, and it can be charged where there was no contact at all, if a complainant believed the other person intended to strike them. That breadth leaves considerable room for a charge to be laid on very little.
Assault causing bodily harm involves an injury that is more than trivial and more than fleeting. Aggravated assault involves wounding, maiming, disfigurement or endangerment of life, and a lasting scar can be enough to reach it.
We have defended several hundred assault matters, from the domestic charge that lands at midnight to the aggravated assault tried in front of a jury.
Charges within this area
- Assault
- Assault causing bodily harm
- Aggravated assault
- Assault with a weapon
- Domestic assault
- Uttering threats
- Breach of conditions
How these cases get fought
The parts of the file that decide the outcome.
What a domestic charge does to you.
Where police attend a domestic dispute a charge is very likely to follow, sometimes against both parties. Once it’s laid, the complainant can’t just withdraw it. That decision belongs to the Crown.
What follows is immediate and severe: a release order barring you from your residence and from contact with your spouse and often your children, before any court has heard evidence. People plead guilty to charges they would have beaten, purely to end that separation sooner. It’s the most common serious mistake we see, and one of the most durable. A conviction reaches employment, travel, immigration status and the terms of any family proceeding.
Resolution without a criminal record is often achievable.
Domestic matters are often resolved without a trial and without a conviction, through diversion or counselling-based programs, through a peace bond, or by the Crown withdrawing the charge on terms.
That outcome depends on early, credible work: getting the material in front of the right Crown, dealing with the circumstances properly, and being visibly ready to run the trial if the offer doesn’t come. Where the allegations are serious or there’s history, the matter will have to be tried, and we prepare it on that footing from day one.
Self-defence and defence of another.
Self-defence is a live and frequently successful defence, and it extends to the defence of another person.
In one matter, our client was alleged to have taken a tire iron from his car and beaten a man with it. Cross-examination established that the complainant had been harassing and threatening a young woman our client was attempting to protect, and that the complainant struck first. The judge dismissed the case and expressed regret that our client had been charged and brought to trial.
The criminal case and the family case are one case.
A finding of guilt on a domestic charge will be raised in family court. It affects parenting arrangements, it affects the terms of a separation, and it can be used to obtain advantage in proceedings that will outlast the criminal matter by years.
The two have to be run with an eye on each other. Decisions that look sensible on their own in the criminal court can be expensive in the family court.
Related case results
Matters of this kind and how they were resolved. Identifying details have been changed or withheld, and past results don’t predict the outcome of any other case.
- Dismissed
Assault with a Weapon
- Acquitted
Robbery · Break and Enter
If police are questioning you
What to say
“I want to speak to my lawyer. I have nothing to say to you.”
Say it, then stop. Nobody can make you explain yourself, and an explanation can’t help you: the rules of evidence will not let your own statement be used in your favour at trial. It can only be used against you.
Questions about assault & domestic charges
The complainant wants to drop the charges.
They can’t. Once a charge is laid, only the Crown can withdraw it. A complainant’s wishes are relevant to that decision but they aren’t determinative, and a complainant who recants may face difficulties of their own.
Can I go home?
Not until the release conditions are varied, and that requires an application. It can often be done, and it should be pursued promptly rather than waited out.
Nothing physical happened at all.
Assault can still be charged where a complainant says they believed force was about to be applied. Whether that belief was reasonable, and whether the words or gesture alleged ever occurred at all, are matters for trial.
Will a peace bond leave me with a record?
A peace bond is not a conviction and doesn’t create a criminal record, though the fact of it may appear in some police record checks. It’s frequently a very good outcome.
This page is general information about Canadian criminal law, not legal advice about your situation. The offences described are defined in the Criminal Code of Canada, and the rights referred to are in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If you cannot afford counsel, Legal Aid Ontario may be able to help.
Written and reviewed by Rita Levin, criminal defence lawyer, called to the Ontario bar on 29 May 1998. Law Society of Ontario licence no. 41157R. Last reviewed .
Other charges we defend
Drug Offences
Possession, trafficking, importation and production, including fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.
Sexual Offences
Sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation.
Homicide
Murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, criminal negligence causing death.
Firearms, Guns & Gangs
Firearms offences, imitation firearms, improper storage, and criminal organization prosecutions.
Fraud & Financial Crime
Fraud over and under $5,000, employee and corporate fraud, forensic accounting cases.
Impaired Driving
Impaired operation, over 80, refusing the demand, and impaired causing bodily harm or death.
Theft, Break & Enter, Robbery
Theft over and under $5,000, break and enter, robbery, and possession of stolen property.
Internet Offences
Child sexual abuse material, luring, voyeurism, and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.
Talk it through with a lawyer
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. We will give you an honest read on where you stand, whether you retain us or not.
We are a private practice and our fees reflect the work involved. A serious matter is prepared over months, and we keep our numbers low so each file gets the hours it needs. We will tell you what your case is likely to cost on the first call, before you commit to anything. And if the honest answer is that duty counsel, Legal Aid or another firm would serve you better, we will tell you that instead.