A first time assault charge in Queensland usually arrives as a piece of paper with a date on it, handed to you after a night you'd rather forget. If you've never been charged with anything before, the honest first question is usually not what the maximum penalty is. It's whether you're going to gaol, whether you'll lose your job, and whether this follows you around forever.

Nobody can tell you how your matter will end, and you should be wary of anyone who offers to. What can be explained is the range of sentencing options a Queensland court has available, which includes options that don't involve imprisonment, and the fact that whether a conviction gets recorded is a separate question from the penalty. That second question is often the one that matters more for work and travel. The rest of this sets out how the process works.

What the law counts as an assault

Wider than you'd think.

You don't have to have injured anyone. You don't even have to have touched them. If you made a move or a gesture that threatened force, and it looked like you could actually carry it out, that can be an assault. Shouting a threat across a car park with no move to back it up is different, because words on their own aren't enough.

So a shove outside a pub, a raised fist, a thrown drink, grabbing someone's shirt. All of those can be assault. That's why people are genuinely shocked to be charged. If you want the reference, the definition sits in section 245 of the Criminal Code.

The charge you're facing matters more than anything else

"Assault" on its own isn't really a charge. Which particular offence you've been charged with decides which court can deal with it, how serious it is, and how much room there is to move.

Common assault

This is the basic one, and it's where many first charges land when nobody was hurt. Under the Criminal Code the maximum is three years.

Take that number for what it is. It's the ceiling for the very worst version of that offence committed by the very worst offender. A single push with no injury is nowhere near it. Our page on common assault goes into how these run.

Assault occasioning bodily harm

If the other person was hurt, the charge steps up to assault occasioning bodily harm and the Criminal Code sets the maximum at seven years. If you were armed, or pretending to be armed, or you had other people with you taking part, it goes to ten.

Two things there catch people out. Pretending to be armed counts, so a hand in a jacket pocket can be enough on the right evidence. And having mates with you who join in lifts the maximum by three years, which almost nobody expects.

"Bodily harm" is set much lower than people assume. The Criminal Code defines it as any injury that interferes with someone's health or comfort. Not permanent, not serious, no hospital needed. A bruise, a split lip, soreness that lasts a day. Any of those can do it.

That's why what the other person told police about their injuries matters so much. The gap between the basic charge and this one is often a single line in a statement.

Serious assault

This one isn't about how badly someone was hurt. It's about who they were.

According to the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council, it covers things like assaulting a police officer doing their job, or someone helping police, or a public officer, or a person aged 60 or over, or someone who relies on a guide or assistance dog, a wheelchair or another aid. It also covers assaults done to resist arrest.

The Council reports the maximum as seven years, going up to fourteen for certain worse forms involving police and public officers, including spitting or biting.

This is the rung people land on without meaning to. A scuffle while being arrested, or a shove that turns out to be directed at someone over 60, changes what you're charged with even though nothing about the force changed.

A maximum penalty is not a prediction

Worth saying twice, because those numbers are frightening and they're meant to be read carefully.

Every one of them is a ceiling. Courts sentence on what actually happened, how much harm was actually caused, and who you actually are. Nobody can tell you what your outcome will be, and you should be wary of anyone who says they can.

Which court hears a first time assault charge

Most assault matters start and finish in the Magistrates Court, in front of a magistrate rather than a judge and jury.

There's a set of rules in the Criminal Code about when that can happen. For some offences it's the prosecution's call. For others you get to choose a jury trial if you want one. For others again there's no choice at all and it stays with the magistrate. A magistrate can also decide to send a matter up if they think they couldn't punish it properly at their level.

Which of those applies depends on the exact charge, and it's one of the first things worth pinning down about your own.

The practical bit is this. A magistrate dealing with a matter can only impose up to three years. So which court you end up in isn't paperwork. It changes the range of what can happen to you.

If the assault involved a partner or family member

A court can mark any offence as a domestic violence offence where the behaviour was also domestic violence, or where it breached a domestic violence order. The Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council records that as the position since December 2015, under the Penalties and Sentences Act.

Two things follow. It shows up on your criminal history as a domestic violence offence. And the court has to treat that aspect as making the offence worse, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council puts it plainly: people convicted of domestic violence offences face a greater risk of harsher sentences, including imprisonment. If your charge has that character, get advice early rather than late. It changes the shape of everything.

Whether a conviction gets recorded

For a lot of people this is the real question, and it's separate from the penalty.

Under the Penalties and Sentences Act the court has a discretion about whether to record a conviction. In deciding, it has to look at the nature of the offence, your character and your age, and what recording a conviction would do to your ability to earn a living or your standing in the community.

That last part is why what you put before the court matters. A magistrate can only weigh what they're told. If a recorded conviction would cost you a licence, a job, a visa or a blue card, that needs to be in evidence, not mentioned in passing on the day.

Be aware that for some sentences, including a term of imprisonment, a conviction has to be recorded.

What to do this week

A few things, roughly in this order.

Get the QP9. That's the police version of what happened. Until you've read it you're guessing about what you're actually answering, and you can't make a sensible decision about pleading from a guess.

Write down what you remember while it's fresh, including who else was there. Memory fades faster than people think and witnesses move away.

Don't contact the other person. Even a message meant kindly can create a second problem, and if there's a domestic violence order in place it can be an offence on its own.

Stay off social media about it. Screenshots have a habit of ending up in a police brief.

And get advice before your first mention rather than in the corridor outside it. First mentions are commonly adjourned, so there's usually time to do this properly.

Why the small details decide these cases

Here's a made up example, purely to show where the pressure points sit.

Two people argue outside a venue. One pushes the other. Nobody's hurt. That might be a common assault. Now change one detail. The person doing the pushing was holding a glass. The charge and the range can shift completely.

Nothing about that is a prediction of what would happen in a real case. It just shows that these matters turn on detail. Who did what, in what order, what was said, what was in someone's hand, whether there's a real question of self defence. That's where the work is, and it's why two charges with the same name can go very differently.

If you've been charged in Cairns

If you've got a first mention coming up at Cairns Magistrates Court and you still haven't seen what the police say happened, that's the place to start. It's usually not too late.

We act in assault and violence matters in Cairns and across Far North Queensland. You can read about that work on our assault and violence page, and we can talk through where your matter actually sits.

If you have been charged with assault for the first time in Cairns, speak with us before your first mention.