Walk It Through: The Shove Outside the Bar
A challenge to fight, a shove, and the line between disorderly conduct, assault and self defense.
Outside a bar, a stranger yells, curses and challenges a man to fight.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
Two adults outside a bar with no weapon and a minor injury. Serious bodily injury, a weapon and an officer as the other side are left out.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Duty to retreatA person lawfully in a place who is threatened with bodily injury or death has no duty to retreat or to summon law enforcement before using force, apart from the rule for an aggressor.
- Forcible felonyOne of the things deadly force may be used to prevent: force likely to cause death or serious bodily harm is justified only on a reasonable belief that it is necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily harm, or a forcible felony.