This is a purely educational website. Nothing here is legal advice or creates or implies an attorney-client relationship. If you have a specific legal issue, PLEASE talk to a lawyer who practices where you live—laws vary from place to place, and how they're applied varies from courthouse to courthouse. Your local county bar association can probably refer someone.
By using this site, you agree that you are awesome. Use of this site also constitutes acceptance of its
Terms of Service and Privacy Policies, which are known to medical science as a cure for insomnia.
It's best to keep all discussions in the comments. But if you really need to reach Nathan privately, go ahead and email him at n.e.burney@gmail.com. He won't mind.
THE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO LAW and the PEEKING JUSTICE logo are pretty damn cool trademarks and should probably be registered one of these days.
© Nathaniel Burney. All rights reserved, though they really open up once you get to know them.
So how reckless do you have to be to count as reckless? If Al had been paying attention to what he was doing, none of this would have happened.
Maybe it would; that depends on just how suddenly Fred moved, and how observant Al is.
The most you could get out of this case would be a civil judgement for medical expenses/pain and suffering, but as a rule juries are reluctant to grant judgements to people who’ve already reacted by committing a greater injury (clean hands doctrine).
You have to be doing something (the jury would believe that) you should know could result in the injury of another person, performing the action in spite of that knowledge. If the prosecutor can convince the jury that any sane person would know that reaching to order without looking could break someone’s nose, then it’s reckless. If the prosecutor can’t, it’s not. Most likely couldn’t sell the jury on this one though.