Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Assault

An "assault" is rarely just verbal. As the old addage goes, "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me".

An "assault" is an unlawful act that places another person in reasonable apprehension of receiving an immediate battery. It is, essentially, an attempt to commit a battery. The defendant must intend to injure the victim or make the victim reasonably fear being struck. An assault must be intentional, not an accident.

So, "trash-talking" is probably not an assault. BUT, trash-talking plus some physical threat in combination might be. The trash-talking might be evidence of the person's intent to want to frighten/hurt the other party. The physical action (raising a fist, etc.) would then be the assault.

Re: Assult

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