Causing Injury & Serious Injury Charges

Written by Justin Chua, Principal Solicitor, Chua Tan Associates. Last reviewed 17 October 2026. General information about Victorian law, not legal advice.

Causing injury charges range from a single punch outside a venue to serious, planned violence. The charge depends on how bad the injury was and what the prosecution says you intended. This page explains the offences, the penalties and what the court will look at.

The law

The main offences are in ss 15A to 18 of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). The prosecution must prove that you caused the injury, that you did so intentionally or recklessly (depending on the charge), and that there was no lawful excuse such as self-defence. Recklessness means you were aware the injury was probable and went ahead anyway.

Under s 15, injury means physical injury or harm to mental health, whether temporary or permanent. Serious injury means an injury (including the combined effect of more than one injury) that endangers life or is substantial and protracted. The difference between the two often decides the charge.

Gross violence (s 15A(2)) includes planning in advance to cause serious injury, acting in company with two or more others, planning to carry and use a weapon, and continuing to injure someone who is incapacitated.

Since 13 October 2024, choking, strangling or suffocating a family member has also been a separate offence: non-fatal strangulation intentionally causing injury (s 34AD, maximum 10 years) and non-fatal strangulation (s 34AE, maximum 5 years), which does not require injury.

Maximum penalties

• Intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence (s 15A): 20 years. Category 1.
• Recklessly causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence (s 15B): 15 years. Category 1.
• Intentionally causing serious injury (s 16): 20 years. Category 2.
• Recklessly causing serious injury (s 17): 15 years.
• Intentionally causing injury (s 18): 10 years.
• Recklessly causing injury (s 18): 5 years.

Where the victim is an on-duty emergency worker, custodial officer or youth justice custodial worker, the s 16, s 17 and s 18 offences are category 1 offences and statutory minimums apply: 3 years non-parole for intentionally causing serious injury, 2 years for recklessly causing serious injury, and a 6-month prison term for causing injury. For people aged 18 to 20, a minimum period of detention in a youth justice centre can apply instead. Gross violence offences carry a 4-year minimum non-parole period, or 5 years against an emergency worker. Each minimum applies unless the court finds a special reason.

If a single punch or strike causes death, it is treated as a dangerous act for manslaughter (s 4A), and there is a 10-year minimum non-parole period.

What happens, step by step

1. Arrest or summons. Police often have CCTV and witness statements before they contact you. Get advice before any interview. See Police Interviews: Your Rights.
2. Bail. Conditions may include not contacting witnesses or attending certain venues. See Bail in Victoria.
3. First mention. Injury charges usually stay in the Magistrates’ Court. Serious injury and gross violence charges usually go to the County Court.
4. Brief of evidence. Medical records matter: they show whether an injury was really “serious”.
5. Negotiation. Charges are often negotiated, for example from serious injury to injury, or from intentional to reckless. This changes the maximum penalty and any mandatory consequences.
6. Contest or plea. If self-defence or identity is in issue, the case may run to a hearing or jury trial.

Penalties and realistic outcomes

Courts look at the seriousness of the injury, any weapon, whether the attack was planned or spontaneous, provocation, intoxication (which is not an excuse), remorse, your history and your prospects. Many lower-level injury charges in the Magistrates’ Court end in a fine or community correction order, and diversion can sometimes be available for a first offence. See Diversion.

In the higher courts, the Sentencing Advisory Council reported these outcomes:

• Intentionally causing injury: of 367 people sentenced from 2018-19 to 2022-23, 80.4% received an immediate custodial sentence and 17.7% a community correction order; the median total effective sentence was 1 year and 6 months (Snapshot 290, October 2024).
• Recklessly causing serious injury: of 179 people sentenced from 2018-19 to 2022-23, 88.3% received an immediate custodial sentence; the median total effective sentence was 3 years and 9 months (Snapshot 289, October 2024).
• Intentionally causing serious injury: of 108 people sentenced from 2018-19 to 2022-23, 98.1% received an immediate custodial sentence; the median total effective sentence was 6 years (Snapshot 288, October 2024).

These figures cover only the County and Supreme Courts, where more serious cases are heard.

Other consequences

• Visas. For non-citizens, a prison sentence of 12 months or more (including concurrent sentences added together) leads to mandatory visa cancellation under Migration Act 1958 (Cth) s 501(3A) while the sentence is being served full-time, and other violence convictions can still affect a visa.
• Firearms and security licences. Violence offences commonly affect eligibility.
• Employment and travel. A conviction appears on police checks and can affect overseas travel.
• Intervention orders. Where the incident involves a family member, a family violence intervention order is often sought at the same time. See Intervention Orders.

How we examine a case like this

• Self-defence under s 322K: whether you believed your conduct was necessary and whether it was a reasonable response in the circumstances as you perceived them. The prosecution must disprove self-defence once it is raised.
• Identification and CCTV, including footage before the incident that shows who started it.
• Whether the medical evidence supports “serious injury”, or only injury.
• Causation: whether your act, rather than a fall or someone else’s act, caused the injury.
• Whether a special reason exists that allows the court to depart from a statutory minimum.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between injury and serious injury?

Injury includes any physical injury or harm to mental health. Serious injury must endanger life or be substantial and protracted. A broken bone may or may not be serious injury depending on the evidence.

Will I go to prison for causing injury?

Not necessarily. Lower-level causing injury charges can result in a fine or community correction order. Prison is more likely for serious injury, gross violence, weapons or injury to an emergency worker.

Can I claim self-defence if I hit someone first?

Possibly. The question is whether you believed your conduct was necessary to defend yourself or someone else, and whether it was a reasonable response in the circumstances as you saw them.

What is a one-punch charge?

If a single punch or strike causes death, the person can be charged with manslaughter, and a 10-year minimum non-parole period applies unless a special reason exists.

Penalties and procedures on this page reflect Victorian and Commonwealth law as at the review date shown above. Maximum penalties are rarely imposed; the sentence in any case depends on its own facts.