For a first assault charge with no serious injury, custody is not the usual outcome, and a conviction is not inevitable either. Assault is one of the charges most likely to resolve without a criminal record.
Assault covers an enormous range, from a shove during an argument to an attack causing lasting injury, and the answer depends almost entirely on where in that range your case sits and what the Crown elects to do with it.
Which Assault You Are Actually Charged With
Common assault under section 266 of the Criminal Code is the base offence. Assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm under section 267 is a step up. Aggravated assault under section 268, which requires wounding, maiming, disfiguring or endangering life, is far more serious again.
Most of these are hybrid offences, meaning the Crown chooses whether to proceed summarily or by indictment. That election drives the maximum penalty and the realistic range more than almost anything else, which is why it is often the first thing defence counsel tries to influence.
"On a first assault charge the useful question is not whether you will go to jail. It is whether this ends without a criminal record, and quite often it can."
The Outcomes That Avoid a Record
A first offender on a lower-level assault is a realistic candidate for a resolution with no conviction. A peace bond under section 810 runs a maximum of 12 months, is not a conviction, and produces no criminal record. Diversion ends with the charge withdrawn. An absolute or conditional discharge is a finding of guilt with no conviction registered.
None of these are automatic. They are negotiated against the strength of the Crown's case, your background, and what has been done since.
What Pushes a Case Toward Custody
Serious or lasting injury, a weapon, an attack on a vulnerable person, a prior record for violence, or a breach of existing conditions all move the range upward. Domestic context matters too, not because the offence is different, but because Crown policy on intimate partner violence is more restrictive about resolutions.
What Happens Immediately
Expect release conditions, usually including no contact with the complainant and often a prohibition on attending a residence, even your own. Those conditions are enforced strictly and breaching one is a separate criminal offence, which is a far more common route into custody on an assault file than the assault itself. See breach and failure to comply.
Our assault practice page sets out how these cases run, and the first evaluation is free and confidential.
