SELF DEFENCE (IN SOUTH AFRICA)

South Africa
My boyfriend is facing a criminal case after defending himself. He and a local cop had an arguiment when the cop was off duty than the cop raised a glass to hit him and than he hit the cop first both was drunk, now a month later the cop layed charges aginst him what can he do to defend himself please help we have a two year old to raise

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As of my knowledge I read somewhere that Crimes are usually categorized as felonies or misdemeanors based on their nature and the maximum punishment that can be imposed. A felony involves serious misconduct that is punishable by death or by imprisonment for more than one year. Most state criminal laws subdivide felonies into different classes with varying degrees of punishment.

I would like to suggest you hire a good professional criminal lawyer who can help you better. Because The criminal law generally refers to substantive criminal laws.

Make sure you or he hires counsel (or at least legal aid) to try to keep this off the record eventually--jail time is probably avoidable but having that arrest and/or a conviction on the record will make job-hunting etc. more difficult. Often this could be negotiated down to some kind of court supervision etc. If it eventually appears it cannot be negotiated down, or he (or you) needs to discuss this in more detail with senior counsel to review options etc., please let us know...