When you decide to go out for New Year's Eve, you are likely thinking of nothing more than getting out on the town, enjoying the party atmosphere, and having a general good time. However, with New Year's Eve comes a great deal of drinking and debauchery which can lead to a larger amount of drama and even legal trouble and criminal charges. In order to take the best care of yourself this New Year's Eve, get to know some of the legal trouble that can commonly occur on such a night. With these potential consequences in mind, you will better be able to avoid drama while you are out and about.
Public Intoxication
Public intoxication is perhaps the most common charge you could be accused of on New Year's Eve. This crime is often referred to as "drunk and disorderly" and means that a person is over the legal alcohol limit and is behaving as such.
Now, you may wonder how you can avoid this on New Year's Eve when everyone is imbibing, and often more than they should. The key to the public intoxication charge is that you have to be acting intoxicated. So, avoid being boisterous, offensive, and the like when you leave a bar or club.
Also, pace your alcohol consumption and drink glasses of water in between each alcoholic beverage. This will prevent you from being and/or acting intoxicated in public.
Disturbing the Peace or Assault
When people are in large crowds as they are in bars and clubs on New Year's Eve and alcohol is being consumed in large amounts, it is very likely that arguments and other altercations will occur. It is important to avoid being a part of these scenarios as they can lead to two types of criminal charges; disturbing the peace and assault.
Disturbing the peace is a charge that occurs when a person disrupts other people. This can include being noisy, arguing loudly, or engaging in physical behaviors that can cause harm to others or that simply disturb others.
Assault, on the other hand, always involves causing physical harm to another person (such as what occurs when someone gets into a fist fight). There are different types and degrees of assault based on the person being assaulted, the intent, the weapon used, and the degree of the injuries the assaulted party sustains.
To keep out of such situations, you will need to control your alcohol consumption and extricate yourself from any escalating situation. Even if someone is harassing you or otherwise disturbing your peace, on New Year's Eve, it is always best to just leave rather than face legal charges for your behavior.
Now that you have an idea of a few of the ways you can get into trouble this New Year's Eve, you can better take care of yourself this year. However, if anything does happen, you should contact a criminal defense attorney right away for assistance and advice on how to handle your New Year's Eve legal trouble.
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