Self Defense

Self-Defense:

Self-defense is a privilege used to protect one from immediate harmful or offensive contact. In order to properly assert the self-defense privilege, the threat must be immediate. Additionally, the force used to repel the attack must be comparable to the perceived threat. In short, a good rule to remember is “fight fire with fire.”

In asserting a self-defense claim, one must be careful to ensure that one is actually in danger.  While mistaking another person’s action as a threat will not preclude one from using self-defense, it does expose one to the possibility of becoming a tortfeasor. However, if a person’s actions are mistakenly perceived as a threat causing the use of self-defense, if the force used to repel the perceived threat was reasonable, a claim of self-defense may hold.