Downgrading Injury Charges to Unlawful Assault

Our client was charged with injury offences. He is in his mid 40s and has never been before a court. The details of the incident were that he had been out on a pub crawl, consumed excessive amounts of alcohol, and overreacted to not being served at a bar. He threw a tray of glasses which caused cuts to the leg of one of the bar staff behind the counter. The full array of alternative injury charges were laid, as well as discharging a missile (being the tray of glasses).
 

Dee Giannopoulos acted on the client’s behalf at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. The charges were:

• Recklessly Cause Injury
• Criminal Damage
• Throw a Missile to the Injury of a Person
• Unlawful Assault

Our solicitors negotiated the charges with the prosecution down to an Unlawful Assault as there was no medical evidence provided to support an injury charge. An application was put forward for diversion. The prosecution agreed to recommend our client for diversion because of his age and lack of prior convictions.

We advised our client that he should consider undertaking an anger management course as well as counselling for alcohol misuse. Our client agreed that, whether he was successful in diversion or not, these courses would educate him and make him all the better for it. He did engage in the courses and obtained certificates of completion which were provided to the court at the diversion hearing.
 

The judicial registrar was very concerned with the conduct but conceded that she was dealing with an Unlawful Assault and not an injury charge. Because of the negotiation of the charges to show a low level, the judicial registrar agreed to the diversion. This was an excellent result. Apart from successfully downgrading injury charges to Unlawful Assault, the diversion sentence means that our client remains with an unblemished criminal record.