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Assault and Battery Charges in Georgia
A push, a slap, or a threat in Georgia falls under one of three offenses: simple assault (no contact needed), simple battery (insulting contact or any physical harm), or battery (substantial or visible harm). All three start as misdemeanors. Who the other person was, where it happened, and earlier convictions can raise the charge to a “high and aggravated” misdemeanor or to a felony.
The three offenses
Simple assault, O.C.G.A. § 16-5-20(a). An attempt to commit a violent injury to another person, or an act that places another person in reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury. No touching is required.
Simple battery, O.C.G.A. § 16-5-23(a). Either intentionally making “physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature” with another person, or intentionally causing physical harm to another. Both branches require intent; an accidental bump is not simple battery.
Battery, O.C.G.A. § 16-5-23.1(a). Intentionally causing “substantial physical harm or visible bodily harm”. Subsection (b) defines visible bodily harm as harm “capable of being perceived by a person other than the victim”, which may include substantially blackened eyes, substantially swollen lips or other body parts, or substantial bruises.
Above these three sit the felonies: aggravated assault, where an assault is combined with intent to murder, rape, or rob, a weapon or dangerous object, strangulation, or a shot from a vehicle (aggravated assault under Georgia law), and aggravated battery, where the injury is the loss, uselessness, or serious disfigurement of a body part (aggravated battery in Georgia).
What the misdemeanor classes mean in sentencing
- Misdemeanor: up to 12 months in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both (O.C.G.A. § 17-10-3(a)(1)).
- Misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature: up to 12 months, a fine of up to $5,000, or both, and no more than four days per month of earned time allowance (O.C.G.A. § 17-10-4).
The difference in jail exposure is not the maximum term but the higher fine and the limit on earned time.
Enhancements differ by offense
The categories that raise a charge are not the same across the three statutes. Reading the right statute matters, because some categories exist for one offense and not the others.
| Category | Simple assault | Simple battery | Battery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public transit vehicle or station | high and aggravated, (c) | high and aggravated, (d) | high and aggravated, (g) |
| Family or household member | high and aggravated, (d) | high and aggravated, (f) | family violence battery, (f): see below |
| Pregnant victim | high and aggravated, (g) | high and aggravated, (c) | high and aggravated, (h) |
| Victim 65 or older | no separate subsection | high and aggravated, (c) | no separate subsection |
| Police, correction, or detention officer on duty | no separate subsection | high and aggravated, (e) | no separate subsection |
| Public school employee, teacher, or school personnel | high and aggravated, (f) | high and aggravated, (i) | 1 to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $10,000, or both, (i) |
| Sports official at an amateur contest | no separate subsection | high and aggravated, (h) | high and aggravated, (k) |
| Utility worker on the job | high and aggravated, (i) | high and aggravated, (j) | high and aggravated, (l) |
Three more points sit outside the table. Battery against school personnel carries a range above 12 months, which makes it a felony under the general definition in O.C.G.A. § 16-1-3. The family relationship test in simple assault and simple battery excludes siblings; the battery statute’s definition of “household member” in subsection (f)(1) does not contain that exclusion. And House Bill 483 (2026) adds code enforcement officials to the utility worker subsections of all three statutes for offenses committed on or after July 1, 2026, according to the bill as passed by the House and Senate.
Repeat battery: where the misdemeanor ends
Within the three statutes themselves, battery is the one tier where history changes the class of the offense:
- Second battery conviction against the same victim: 10 days to 12 months, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. The 10-day minimum cannot be suspended or probated, except that the judge may allow weekend or nonworking-hours confinement, or may set the minimum aside on clear and convincing evidence of undue hardship or a failure of justice (§ 16-5-23.1(d)).
- Third or later battery conviction against the same victim: a felony, one to five years (§ 16-5-23.1(e)).
- Family violence battery: a first conviction is a misdemeanor unless the person has a prior conviction for a forcible felony committed between household members, which makes it a felony of one to five years. A second or later family violence battery conviction, against the same or a different victim, is a felony of one to five years (§ 16-5-23.1(f)(2)).
A separate count applies to all three offenses. Since § 17-10-3.2 took effect on July 1, 2026, a misdemeanor conviction under Chapter 5 of Title 16, which holds simple assault, simple battery, and battery, is a “qualifying misdemeanor”: on a fourth or later one within ten years, the defendant is deemed to have committed a felony punishable by one to ten years, and the first year cannot be suspended or probated. The window is measured from the earlier arrests that led to a conviction or an accepted nolo contendere plea, and several qualifying misdemeanors on a single date count as one conviction. The section does not say how it interacts with the battery rules above; its conditions are laid out in the repeat-misdemeanor felony rule in § 17-10-3.2.
The arrest, bond, and protective order procedures that come with a family violence charge are covered in how Georgia handles family violence and domestic assault.
Reading the charge sheet
Five facts decide the exposure. The subsection number tells whether a high and aggravated range applies. The named person’s relationship to the accused and the date of the offense tell whether the family violence and code enforcement provisions apply. For battery, an earlier conviction involving the same person, or an earlier family violence battery conviction, can turn the charge into a felony. And for any of the three, the number of earlier Chapter 5 or 6 misdemeanor convictions inside the ten-year window decides whether § 17-10-3.2 applies.
Sources
- O.C.G.A. § 16-5-20 (simple assault), § 16-5-23 (simple battery), § 16-5-23.1 (battery; family violence battery; repeat convictions); 2024 Georgia Code.
- O.C.G.A. § 16-1-3 (definition of felony).
- O.C.G.A. § 17-10-3(a)(1) (misdemeanor punishment); § 17-10-4 (high and aggravated misdemeanor punishment; text as of March 28, 2024).
- House Bill 483 (2026), Sections 2, 4, 5, and 7, as passed by the House and Senate; Act 380.
General information about Georgia criminal law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.