Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: 4th degree assault in Washington State

It would be useful to know what county you are in, because different places deal with this stuff differently.

You don't have to expect a thing, you were not charged. You are the victim/complaining witness?

You may be asked to testify, or not depending on what other evidence the prosecutor has.

Your wife is entitled to an attorney whether it's a public defender or private counsel. The smartest thing you could do right now is to ensure she has that option.

Hope this helps. Elizabeth Powell

Re: 4th degree assault in Washington State

She should have an attorney, if she can't afford one, an attorney should be appointed for her to assist her in negotiating and evaluating the merits of the potential resolutions. You don't say where this case is procedurally (has she been arraigned or is this a pretrial hearing, or is this the trial?) Assuming this is an arraignment and she has no prior convictions, and no other special circumstances are involved in this case, she should expect to be offered a deferred prosecution, conditions typically are: do assessments that may be indicated, and treatment or education as recommended, and other conditions of deferred program, there are costs associated with this type of program. Another possibility is that she may be offered a suspended sentence for pleading guilty, she would then typically be sentenced to the maximum (365 days in jail) with all or most of it suspended, a fine with all or part of it suspended, also there are typically conditions of suspended sentence relating to the incident (e.g. no alcohol if alcohol was involved in assault).