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Self Defense Lawyer – Michigan

Were you assaulted and forced to defend yourself? Were you forced to defend someone else? If you were charged with assault in a situation where you had no choice but to fight back you need an experienced criminal lawyer.  

If you acted in self-defense, or the defense of another person and were charged with assault or some other crime you need to contact criminal defense lawyer, Aaron J. Boria (734) 453-7806.

You are within your legal right to defend yourself or someone else if you or that other person are in immediate danger. Unfortunately, many times police and prosecution get it wrong and charge the wrong person. To make matters worse, self-defense is a fact based defense so a jury has to decide the case, a judge cannot dismiss based on self-defense or the defense of another person.

Self-Defense in Michigan

In the event that you are forced to go to trial, the jury will be read instructions reading the charge you are faced with as well as the self-defense instruction. If they jury believes you acted in self-defense you MUST be found not guilty. Below, is the Michigan Self-Defense jury instruction that would be read by the judge to the jury:

(1) The defendant claims that they acted in lawful self-defense. A person has the right to use force to defend themselves under certain circumstances. If a person acts in lawful self-defense, their actions are justified and they are not guilty.

(2) You should consider all the evidence and use the following rules to decide whether the defendant acted in lawful self-defense . Remember to judge the defendant’s conduct according to how the circumstances appeared to them at the time they acted.

(3) First, at the time they acted, the defendant must not have been engaged in the commission of a crime.

(4) Second, when they acted, the defendant must have honestly and reasonably believed that they had to use force to protect themselves from the imminent unlawful use of force by another. If their belief was honest and reasonable, they could act at once to defend themselves, even if it turns out later that they were wrong about how much danger they were in.

(5) Third, a person is only justified in using the degree of force that seems necessary at the time to protect themselves from danger. The defendant must have used the kind of force that was appropriate to the attack made and the circumstances as they saw them. When you decide whether the force used was what seemed necessary, you should consider whether the defendant knew about any other ways of protecting themselves, but you may also consider how the excitement of the moment affected the choice the defendant made.

(6) Fourth, the right to defend oneself only lasts as long as it seems necessary for the purpose of protection.

(7) Fifth, the person claiming self-defense must not have acted wrongfully and brought on the assault. However, if the defendant only used words, that does not prevent them from claiming self-defense if they were attacked.

Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer

Call (734) 453-7806 to speak with criminal defense lawyer, Aaron J. Boria. We fight for our clients and we get results. We have also obtained multiple Not Guilty verdicts based on self-defense.

For more information about criminal defnese attorney, Aaron J. Boria click here to view his biography.