Battery

Battery may be a criminal act, a civil wrong, or both. We handle the civil side of plaintiffs’ battery claim.

What is a battery?

The technical definition of a battery is, "a harmful or offensive contact with a person, resulting from an act intended to cause the plaintiff or a third person to suffer such a contact, or apprehension that such a contact is imminent, is a battery." (Second Restatement of Torts, §  13).

“A battery is any intentional, unlawful and harmful contact by one person with the person of another. . . . A harmful contact, intentionally done is the essence of a battery. A contact is ‘unlawful’ if it is unconsented to.” (Ashcraft v. King (1991) 228 Cal.App.3d 604, 611 [278 Cal.Rptr. 900].

The essential elements to a claim for battery are:

1. That defendant [touched plaintiff]
[or]
[caused plaintiff to be touched] with the intent to harm or offend [him/her];
2. That plaintiff did not consent to the touching; and
3. That plaintiff was harmed [or offended] by defendant’s conduct; [and]
[4. That a reasonable person in plaintiff's situation would have been offended by the touching.]