Assault Charges

Last updated October 16, 2026

The charge

LegalSolv’s assault lawyers in Dearborn, Michigan defend assault and battery, aggravated assault, felonious assault, and assault with intent charges in the 19th District Court, the 36th District Court in Detroit, the Wayne County Circuit Court, and the other district courts across Wayne County, in English and Arabic.

Michigan charges assault on a ladder. At the bottom is simple assault or assault and battery under MCL 750.81, a misdemeanor with up to 93 days in jail. Aggravated assault, a serious injury inflicted without a weapon, carries up to one year. Felonious assault, any assault with a dangerous weapon, is a felony with up to four years, and a dangerous weapon includes a car, a bottle, or anything used as one. Assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, and assault by strangulation, carry up to ten years. Assault with intent to murder carries up to life. Resisting and obstructing a police officer, which is charged out of many of the same incidents, is its own two-year felony.

Where a case lands on that ladder is a charging decision, and charging decisions change. A felonious assault complaint based on a thrown object, an aggravated assault based on an injury the medical records do not support, or an intent charge built on an angry text can come down several rungs once the evidence is in front of the prosecutor.

Self-defense is a defense, and it is Michigan law

Michigan’s Self-Defense Act gives a person who is lawfully where they are the right to use force, with no duty to retreat, when they honestly and reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent the imminent unlawful use of force against them. Deadly force is allowed when the belief is of imminent death, great bodily harm, or sexual assault. Once the defense is raised with some evidence, the burden shifts to the prosecutor to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

The fight in a self-defense case is almost always about proportion and timing: whether the force matched the threat and whether the threat was still there when the force was used. The same video that the prosecutor relies on to show the punch usually shows what came before it.

What the police report leaves out

Officers arriving at a fight work from what they see and what they are told in the first minutes. The person with the visible injury becomes the victim, the person who did not call 911 becomes the defendant, and the report is written. Surveillance video from the bar or the gas station, the witness who left before police arrived, the other person’s injuries and prior conduct, and the messages exchanged before the incident are rarely in that report.

We obtain all of it before the first pretrial, because the version of events that the prosecutor is working from is the one in the report, and the negotiation changes when the file changes.

Collateral consequences

An assault conviction follows the case. It appears on employment and housing background checks, it can be used against you in a custody dispute, a felony conviction ends firearm rights, and for a non-citizen an assault conviction can carry immigration consequences depending on the offense and the sentence. A charge involving a spouse, partner, co-parent, or household member is handled under Michigan’s domestic violence provisions, which add a firearm ban and a first-offense deferral of their own. Those consequences are part of every plea discussion, and avoiding the conviction, where the facts allow, is worth more than the sentence that comes with it.

Where Wayne County assault cases are heard

Misdemeanor assault charges from Dearborn are heard at the 19th District Court from arraignment through sentencing. Felony assault charges start there with a probable cause conference and preliminary examination and bind over to the Wayne County Circuit Court’s Criminal Division in Detroit, where our felony defense attorneys take the case through trial. Detroit cases start at the 36th District Court. Our criminal defense attorneys in Dearborn appear in all of them.

How we handle it

The same attorney handles the case from the arraignment through resolution. The first meeting covers the charge and its exposure, whether self-defense applies, what evidence exists beyond the police report, and the collateral consequences of each possible outcome. Bring the complaint, the bond paperwork, and any video, photographs, or messages from that day.

This is a focused part of our criminal defense practice. Call (313) 425-5555 to talk through your situation.