An assault charge can get worse without the other person being any more badly hurt.

Queensland law attaches extra facts to these offences, and where one of them applies the maximum penalty goes up, sometimes a long way. Lawyers call them circumstances of aggravation. They are the reason two people who did almost the same thing can be facing very different charges, and they catch people out constantly because they have nothing to do with the injury.

Being armed, or pretending to be

If you were armed with a dangerous or offensive weapon or instrument, the charge steps up.

For assault occasioning bodily harm, the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council puts the base maximum at seven years and the maximum where the person was armed or in company at ten.

Two things surprise people here.

Pretending counts. For the serious assault offences involving police and public officers, the Council includes being or pretending to be armed among the circumstances that make it worse. A hand in a jacket pocket can be enough on the right evidence.

Anything can be a weapon. The category is not limited to knives. A glass, a bottle, a pool cue, a tool from the back of a ute. Whether an object was a dangerous or offensive weapon or instrument in the circumstances is a real question rather than a fixed list, and it is frequently the thing worth arguing about.

In company, which almost nobody expects

This is the one that produces the most genuine shock.

If you were in company with one or more other people, the maximum for assault occasioning bodily harm goes from seven years to ten. Not because you did more. Because of who was standing there taking part.

So three mates involved in the same scuffle can each be facing a materially higher maximum than any one of them would have faced alone. People find that hard to accept and it is the law.

It also creates the most commonly litigated question in this area. Were the others actually taking part, or were they just present. Standing nearby watching is not the same as being in company for these purposes, and the difference is worth three years on the ceiling. Our page on assault occasioning bodily harm sets out how those charges run.

Who the other person was

Serious assault is not about the severity of the injury at all. It is about the identity of the person assaulted.

The Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council describes it as covering police officers and people helping them, corrective services and public officers, people performing a duty imposed by law, people aged 60 or over, and people who rely on a guide, hearing or assistance dog, a wheelchair or another aid.

The base maximum is seven years. Where the person was a police officer or a public officer and one of the specific aggravations applies, the Council puts it at fourteen. Those aggravations include biting, spitting on, throwing or applying bodily fluid or faeces to, or causing bodily harm to the officer, and being or pretending to be armed at the time.

Fourteen years for an act that in another context would be a common assault with a three year ceiling. That is the scale of what the identity of the other person does. Our page on serious assault covers that area.

If it involved a partner or family member

Separate from the aggravations above, a Queensland court can mark an offence as a domestic violence offence where the behaviour was also domestic violence, or where it breached a domestic violence order.

That is not a change to the maximum. It is a notation that appears on your criminal history, and it is treated as making the offence worse. If your matter has that character, it changes the shape of everything and it is worth advice early rather than late.

Group fights, and the other charges that come with them

A brawl rarely produces one charge.

Where several people are involved in fighting in a public place, the offence of affray can be laid. The Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council lists the maximum for affray as one year, which is a good deal lower than the assault charges that often sit alongside it. There is also an offence of going armed so as to cause fear, which the Council lists at two years.

The practical point is not the numbers. It is that a single incident outside a venue can produce a stack of charges with very different ceilings, laid against several people, and the version of events police assemble from a chaotic scene is often the weakest part of the case.

If you have been charged along with other people, do not assume you are all in the same position, and be careful about coordinating your accounts with them. That creates its own problems.

What actually gets argued about

Three things, in most matters.

Whether the object was a weapon in the circumstances, rather than just an object that happened to be in someone's hand.

Whether the others were taking part or were bystanders who got swept into the police version.

Whether the officer was acting in the execution of their duty at that moment, which is not the automatic yes people assume.

Each of those is a factual question, decided on evidence, and each of them can move the ceiling by years. That is why the exact wording of the charge matters more than the label people use for it.

A maximum is not a prediction

Every figure above is a ceiling for the worst version of that offence committed by the worst offender. Courts sentence on what actually happened, how much harm was actually caused, and who you actually are.

Nobody can tell you what your matter will produce, and you should be wary of anyone who says they can. What can be done is careful work on which charge the evidence actually supports.

What to do this week

Get the QP9. Read the exact wording, including any circumstance of aggravation alleged, because that wording is what sets your range.

Write down the sequence while it is fresh, particularly what was in whose hand and who was actually involved as opposed to present.

Ask about footage now. Venues and car parks overwrite it quickly.

Do not discuss it with the others charged, and stay off social media.

If you have been charged in Cairns

The difference between a charge with an aggravation and the same charge without one is often a single line in a statement, and that line is worth examining before you decide how to plead.

We act in assault and violence matters in Cairns and across Far North Queensland. If your charge has an aggravation attached to it, we can go through whether the evidence actually supports it.

If your assault charge in Cairns has a circumstance of aggravation attached to it, speak with us before you decide how to plead.