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Assault / Battery Defense Playbook

One Bad Moment. Now Your Character Is on Trial.

A sudden confrontation became a charge — and the line between a misdemeanor and a felony may turn on a single word in a medical report. 26 questions, 12 red flags, case stage roadmap, and attorney scorecard.

$127Two Books Included

Emergency Playbook + Full Defense Playbook — both delivered instantly

Get Instant Access — $127

or 2 payments of $63.50

Download within 60 seconds of purchase. No intake form. No waiting.

Book 1

Emergency Playbook

What to do right now. First 72 Hours checklist, 5 Priority Questions, crisis resources. Read this first.

Book 2

Full Defense Playbook

The complete reference. Case stage roadmap, red flag checklist, scorecard, all 26 questions, and more.

What this costs

Visible before you click.

$127Assault / Battery Defense Playbook, delivered in Instant download.

Some legal-services sites publish their price openly. Some don't. Here's where each one lands today.

Every price on this site is the price. No “starting at.” No per-minute meter. No bait.

The Charge Level Was a Decision — Not a Fact.

An altercation happened fast, the police arrived faster, and someone left in handcuffs. The report was written from one side of a chaotic event. And the most consequential decision in your whole case — whether you’re charged with simple assault or aggravated assault — was made by a prosecutor weighing an injury finding you’ve never seen reviewed.

That line is everything. Simple assault is usually a misdemeanor; aggravated assault is a felony in most states. It’s the difference between probation and prison, and between a record that can sometimes be sealed and one that triggers a lifetime firearms ban. The aggravating element — a “serious bodily injury” finding, a deadly-weapon allegation, a protected-class accuser — is frequently the most vulnerable part of the prosecution’s case, and the part defendants least often hear challenged.

Meanwhile, the evidence that tells your side degrades by the hour: your defensive injuries fade, witnesses scatter, and the surveillance footage that shows who escalated auto-deletes within days. Every hour your side goes undocumented is an hour the police report becomes the only story.

The Simple-vs-Aggravated Trap

Whether your injury finding actually meets your state’s “serious bodily injury” threshold can be the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony. If no one has challenged it, the felony is being treated as a fact when it’s a decision.

The No-Contact Mistake

Reaching out to the other person — to apologize, explain, or “smooth it over,” even through a friend — can be charged as a separate crime. It’s the single fastest way to turn a defensible case into an indefensible one.

Evidence Disappearing

Defensive marks fade, witnesses leave, and business and doorbell footage auto-deletes within days. The video that shows who swung first won’t wait for your second hearing.

What you're afraid of

Before you read the proof, here's what every defendant worries about.

Every citation in your report links back to a real CourtListener URL or a real state statute page. Your attorney can verify everything in under five minutes. We sit alongside your attorney — we don't replace them.

  • What if I take the wrong plea — or the wrong sentence?

    Most defendants take the first plea offered. We pull the comparable cases in your district and your judge's prior rulings, so you can see what the floor actually is before deciding.

    See the Playbook

  • What if my attorney isn't actually listening — or preparing?

    Most defendants leave their attorney's office with more questions than they came in with. Not because attorneys are bad — the meeting is short and you didn't know what to ask. We hand you the questions, scored against your charge.

    Take the free Defense Score

  • I don't even know what I don't know.

    The hardest part of a criminal case is not knowing which questions matter. The Intelligence Brief pulls the most-cited opinions in your district + your charge, mapped to your judge's prior rulings, and surfaces the five questions that move the needle in front of this prosecutor.

    See what an Intelligence Brief covers

  • What if I bring my attorney a number they dismiss?

    If you bring your attorney a number they can't trace to a source, the conversation is over. Every number in our report is a hyperlink. Your attorney clicks, verifies, and the conversation continues.

    View a sample report

We're not here to replace your attorney. We're here to make sure you walk into their office knowing the right questions to ask.

What you're paying for is the time

Skip the 6-10 hours of reading. We already did it.

Defendants are already doing this work themselves — on r/legaladvice / r/Ask_Lawyers / Avvo Q&A, in Google searches, in the long thread of “what happens if I plead X” questions every public legal-help surface carries. The data is public. The reading is the work.

  • r/legaladvice + r/Ask_Lawyers (source): thousands of 'what happens if I plead X' threads, none of them indexed to your specific charge or your state's statute.

  • Avvo Q&A (source): per-charge plain-language threads, attorney answers gated behind per-minute meters.

  • Your state's official statute site: the actual statute text, the actual sentencing range, the actual enhancement triggers.

We hand you the synthesis — cited, hyperlinked, organized for your charge — for $127.

Get the Assault / Battery Defense Playbook — $127

Hours sampled from r/legaladvice + Avvo threads where defendants described their first-week prep windows (read 2026-05-21). Statutes pulled from each state's official legislature site.

What Makes This Playbook Different

Charge-Tier Analysis

Built Around the Line That Decides Everything

The questions test whether your attorney is challenging the aggravating element — the injury finding, the weapon allegation, the protected class — that separates a misdemeanor from a felony, rather than accepting the prosecution’s charge as fixed.

Both-Sides Evidence Standards

Your Injuries and Your Evidence Count Too

Drawing on the charge-by-charge defense method documented by attorneys like Tim Zerillo (author of the assault chapters of Defending Specific Crimes), the questions cover full 911 audio, every officer’s body-camera footage, photographs of both parties’ injuries, and the witness inconsistencies a police summary leaves out.

Full Consequence Mapping

The Collateral Cost, Not Just the Sentence

Trial-advocacy practice from attorneys like Lisa Monet Wayne (NACDL Executive Director, violent-crime trial litigator) frames the real stakes: an assault charged in a domestic context can end firearm rights for life even on a misdemeanor plea, and a non-citizen can face removal. Every plea question accounts for it.

What's inside

Emergency Playbook (Book 1)

What to do right now. First 72 Hours checklist, no-contact discipline, 5 Priority Questions, evidence preservation steps. Start here.

$197

26 Attorney Questions

5 priority + 21 organized by evidence, charge level, diversion, and attorney accountability

$297

Simple-vs-Aggravated Guide

How the charge level is decided, what makes an assault “aggravated,” and how the injury/weapon/protected-class element gets challenged — in plain English

$197

Case Stage Roadmap

From arrest through the charging decision, discovery, motions, trial, and resolution — what typically happens at each stage and what questions to ask

$197

12-Point Red Flag Checklist

Unreviewed video, missing injury documentation, an unchallenged aggravating element, collateral-consequence blind spots

$197

Attorney Scorecard + Meeting Templates

Rate your representation, email template, phone script — ready to use today

$150

Charge Reality Report

What you’re actually facing, the simple-versus-aggravated line, diversion and anger-management paths, and the collateral consequences of an assault conviction in plain English

$197

Total value: $1,432

Your price: $127

Get Instant Access — $127

or 2 payments of $63.50

Your intake is private to us. We don’t contact your attorney.Delivery GuaranteeStripe Secure CheckoutQuestions? help@imnotanattorney.comUsually responds same day

Our Guarantee

The 5-Question Guarantee

Use the 5 Priority Questions at your next attorney meeting. If you don’t learn something about your case you didn’t know before, we’ll refund every dollar. No questions asked.

This is for you if...

  • ✓You’re facing simple assault, aggravated assault, or battery charges after an arrest
  • ✓You’re not sure whether you’re charged with a misdemeanor or a felony, or what makes it “aggravated”
  • ✓The confrontation was mutual or you were defending yourself, and the report only tells one side
  • ✓You may be a first-time defendant who wants to understand whether diversion could end the case
  • ✓You want to understand your case well enough to have an informed conversation with your attorney

This is NOT for you if...

  • ✗You’re looking for legal advice about whether to take a plea (this is information, not advice)
  • ✗You want someone to contact the other party for you (this explains why that is dangerous — nothing else)
  • ✗You want someone to tell you what to do (this gives you questions to ask, not answers)

Legal term

Legal information, not legal advice

This Playbook draws on the documented strategies of elite defense attorneys applied to how assault and battery cases are actually charged and tried — the simple-versus-aggravated line, evidence preservation, diversion eligibility, affirmative defenses, and the collateral consequences of a violent-crime conviction. Every question is designed to surface whether your attorney is building a real defense or processing your case.

Evidence Has Expiration Dates

Days to weeks

Your defensive injuries fade — the photographs that support a self-defense or mutual-struggle account

Days

Business, doorbell, and surveillance footage that shows who escalated auto-deletes from most systems

Early in the case

Diversion and anger-management eligibility windows can close before the case “plays out”

Varies by case

Pretrial motion deadlines for suppressing statements and challenging the aggravating element

30 days from purchase

Your $127 upgrade credit toward the Case Decoder ($247). After 30 days, the credit expires.

Frequently asked questions

It’s the most important question in the case. Simple assault is usually a misdemeanor; aggravated assault is usually a felony. The Playbook explains what makes an assault “aggravated” and the questions that test whether your attorney is challenging that element.

Yes. The Playbook covers factual disputes, element challenges, and affirmative defenses including self-defense and defense of others. The same evidence that supports self-defense also undermines the prosecution’s account of who the aggressor was.

Often, yes — many jurisdictions offer pretrial diversion or anger-management programs that can end in dismissal for eligible first-time defendants. The Playbook explains how these work and why the application window matters; eligibility is a question for your attorney.

If the assault arose in a domestic context, a misdemeanor conviction can trigger a lifetime federal firearms prohibition under the Lautenberg Amendment (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9)). The Playbook explains why this belongs in every plea conversation.

Two instant PDF downloads. After payment, you’ll receive an email with download links for both the Emergency Playbook (start here) and the Full Defense Playbook (complete reference) within 60 seconds. No intake form, no waiting.

If you read this Playbook and cannot find at least 5 questions you never thought to ask your attorney, send us one email and we’ll refund every dollar. No explanation required.

Your $127 is fully credited toward the Case Decoder ($247) within 30 days. The upgrade costs just $120.

The Assault / Battery Defense Playbook is generic to all cases of this charge type. The Case Decoder ($247) is personalized to YOUR specific situation with case-specific questions, email templates, and a 7-day action plan. Your $127 purchase is credited toward the Case Decoder.

A 30-minute criminal defense attorney consultation costs $300–$750.

The Assault / Battery Defense Playbook is $127.

Two books, instant download. 26 questions. 12 red flags. Case roadmap. Simple-vs-aggravated guide. Attorney scorecard.

100% Money-Back Guarantee — Read it. If you don't feel more prepared for your next attorney meeting, email us within 30 days. Full refund, no questions.

Get Instant Access — $127

or 2 payments of $63.50

The 5-Question Guarantee

Your intake is private to us. We don’t contact your attorney.Delivery GuaranteeStripe Secure Checkout

Need case-specific questions?

The Case Decoder ($247) builds 15 personalized questions from YOUR charges, YOUR state, YOUR stage — plus email templates, phone scripts, and a 7-day action plan.

Your $127 Assault / Battery Defense Playbook purchase is credited toward the Case Decoder. Upgrade for $120 within 30 days.