You probably didn’t expect that cheering for your school’s team would result in criminal charges when you headed out with your friends. Maybe you got tickets and went tailgating to watch the big game in person. Perhaps you got reservations at a local sports bar and started drinking with your friends.
When supporters for the other team get too aggressive, if you’ve been drinking for a while, things could come to blows. Unfortunately, a fistfight at your frat house or a local bar will possibly result in a lot more than just bruised knuckles. College students in Georgia who get physical with others can easily wind up charged with assault.
You don’t have to cause lasting injury to face assault charges
Plenty of students feel very surprised when they learn that throwing a few punches is enough for them to get charged with assault. Many people think that only fights that result in permanent injury to one person are a criminal act, but Georgia’s laws make it clear that the definition of assault is much broader than that.
Any attempt to cause physical harm to another person, even if it isn’t successful, can constitute assault. In fact, threats or actions that make another person fear for their bodily safety can also result in assault charges, even if no one actually gets physically hurt
Criminal charges can have a ripple effect for college students
All too often college students, worried about missing school and the embarrassment involved in criminal court proceedings might plead guilty just to get things over with. Unfortunately, they soon learned that their conviction could affect everything from their enrollment in school to their eligibility for both federal student aid and private scholarship programs.
Defending against allegations of assault can be a good way for college students to learn from their mistakes and minimize the impact of a fistfight on the rest of their lives.