Yes. Spitting on someone is an assault in Queensland, and people are charged with it regularly.

The part that matters far more than whether it counts is who it was aimed at. Spitting at a stranger outside a pub and spitting at a police officer arresting you are the same physical act and they are not remotely the same charge.

Why spitting counts when nothing was thrown and nobody was hurt

Assault in Queensland is not limited to punching someone.

The Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council describes the definition as covering a person who strikes, touches, moves or otherwise applies force to another without their consent. And applying force is defined more widely than the phrase suggests. It expressly includes applying heat, light, electrical force, gas, odour or any other substance or thing, where it is applied in a degree that causes injury or personal discomfort.

Saliva is a substance. Being spat on causes personal discomfort. That is the whole of it.

So the two arguments people reach for first, that nothing was thrown and nobody was injured, do not answer the charge. Neither is required.

If the person you spat at was a member of the public

The likely charge is common assault, and the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council puts the maximum at three years.

Read that number for what it is. It is the ceiling for the very worst version of that offence committed by the very worst offender. A single incident of spitting during an argument is nowhere near the top of that range, and courts sentence on what actually happened rather than on the ceiling. Nobody can tell you what your matter will produce. Our page on common assault sets out how these run.

If it was a police officer or a public officer, the picture changes sharply

This is the part people do not see coming.

Serious assault is not about how badly someone was hurt. It is about who they were. 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 for serious assault is seven years. But the Council also records that spitting is one of the specific circumstances that makes it worse. Biting, spitting on, throwing or applying bodily fluid or faeces to, or causing bodily harm to a police officer all count, as does being or pretending to be armed at the time. Where one of those applies to a police officer or a public officer, the Council puts the maximum at fourteen years.

That is the jump. Seven to fourteen, on the same act, because of who it landed on.

The Council records the aggravated form applying to police from August 2012 and being extended to other public officers from September 2014, so this is settled law rather than a recent change. Our page on serious assault covers that area.

Who counts as a public officer is wider than you would guess

Most people picture police and stop there. The category takes in a much broader group of people doing public facing work, including people performing a duty imposed on them by law.

This matters because of where spitting incidents actually happen. Hospitals. Ambulances. Public transport. Council premises. Watch houses. A person who has had a very bad night and lashes out at whoever is in front of them often has no idea, at the time, which category that person falls into.

The maximum is not a forecast

Fourteen years is a frightening number and it is meant to be read carefully rather than as a prediction.

Every maximum in this area is a ceiling. Courts sentence on what actually happened, how much harm was actually caused, and who you actually are. Nobody can tell you how your matter will end, and you should be wary of anyone who offers to.

What can be said is that the charge you are on sets the range you are being sentenced within, which is why the first job is working out precisely what has been laid against you rather than what you assume it is.

The details that tend to decide these matters

Whether the person spat at was acting in the execution of their duty at that moment, if they were an officer, is a real question rather than an automatic yes.

Whether the saliva actually made contact, and where.

What was said and done immediately before, because context sits at the centre of sentencing in this area.

Whether there is body worn camera or CCTV footage, which in these matters there very often is, and which frequently shows something different from what everybody remembers.

What to do this week

Get the QP9, which is the police version of what happened. Until you have read it you are guessing at what you are actually answering.

Write down your own account while it is fresh, including who else was there.

Do not contact the other person, and do not post about it. Screenshots have a habit of turning 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 is usually time to do this properly.

If you have been charged in Cairns

Spitting charges often come out of a few seconds at the end of a long night, and the person is genuinely shocked at how seriously it is treated. That shock is understandable and it is not an answer to the charge, but the circumstances around it can matter a great deal to how the matter is dealt with, and they need to be put properly.

We act in assault and violence matters in Cairns and across Far North Queensland. If you have a first mention coming up, we can go through where your matter actually sits.

If you have been charged over a spitting incident in Cairns, speak with us before your first mention.