Paragraph: The bruises heal first, and everything else takes far longer. Lost work, treatment that carries on, and the fear of walking that street again are all part of what any claim is for.
BROOKLINE ASSAULT AND BATTERY LAWYER
An attack keeps costing money long after the bruises heal.
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A Brookline assault and battery claim asks for money, not punishment.
In the wake of a violent attack, most people’s attention turns to the criminal case, and to whether the person responsible will be charged and punished. That process matters, but it is built to punish the offender, not to repair your life. It does not pay your hospital bills, replace your lost wages, or answer for the fear and the trauma an attack leaves behind. A civil claim exists for exactly that purpose, and it runs entirely separately from any criminal case.
That separation works in an injured person’s favor. A civil claim is decided on a lower standard of proof than a criminal prosecution, so you can recover compensation even if no one was ever arrested, the charges were dropped, or the attacker was found not guilty. And the person who threw the punch is often not the only one responsible. Where a business or a property owner failed to provide reasonable security, and that failure allowed the attack to happen, that company can be liable as well, and its insurance is often what makes a real recovery possible.
These cases usually involve two very different kinds of defendant. The first is the attacker, who is directly at fault but who frequently has no insurance and little worth collecting. The second is a negligent business or property owner: a bar that let a dangerous situation build, an apartment complex with broken locks and dark hallways, a venue that ignored a known risk. That failure helped the attack happen, and that insurance is what can actually compensate you.
Our team investigates the attack, identifies everyone responsible, and pursues the coverage that can actually pay. That same investigation is what we run on injury claims across Boston, on assaults that happen in the city itself, and just over the line in Cambridge. Recovering from a violent attack is hard enough without having to argue with an insurer on your own.
Every case at the firm is handled under the direction of Daniel J. Larson, whose background and credentials are set out on his attorney profile. From the first conversation you work directly with a lawyer who understands these cases, and who will explain, in plain terms and with discretion, what your claim involves and what it may be worth.
Many people believe nothing can be done once the criminal process ends or stalls. They are told the charges were dropped, or that no suspect was ever found, and they conclude that this is the end of it. It is not. The civil system runs on a separate track, with its own lower burden of proof, and it exists to give an injured person a remedy the criminal courts do not provide. Pursuing that claim is not about revenge. It is about recovering what the attack took from you.
We look past the attacker to whoever else is responsible.
- We pursue the civil claim separately from any criminal case, so you can recover even without a conviction.
- We look beyond the attacker to any business whose failed security helped a foreseeable attack happen.
- We find the insurance that can actually pay, since an attacker alone often has little to collect from.
- We document the full harm, the physical injuries and the fear and trauma a violent attack leaves behind.
- We handle the investigation and the insurer for you, with real discretion for what you have been through.
- No fee unless we win
- Free, private case review
- Same-day response
- Honest advice from day one
Two separate cases can come out of one attack.
Your claim does not depend on the criminal case.
A violent attack is both a crime and a private wrong. The criminal charge belongs to the state, and its purpose is to punish the person who did it. None of it is designed to put money in your hands. Your own claim is separate. It asks for payment for what the attack cost you, it is decided on a lower standard of proof, and it can succeed even where there was no arrest, no charge, or a verdict of not guilty.
A business can be made to answer for what it allowed.
Very often the party who can actually pay is not the attacker but a property owner or a business that failed to keep people reasonably safe. A bar that kept serving an aggressive customer, a landlord who ignored broken locks or unlit stairwells, a venue that provided no security despite a known risk: each can be held responsible for an attack it should have seen coming. Those businesses carry insurance, and that coverage is usually the difference between a judgment on paper and money that actually arrives.
A business is not responsible for every act of violence on its property. But where the danger was foreseeable, from the nature of the place, the hour it kept, or a history of trouble, and the business failed to take ordinary precautions, it can be held to account. A record of earlier violence at the same place carries particular weight, and finding that pattern is often what turns a claim from possible into compelling.
The evidence that decides it disappears within days.
Security video, the police report, medical records, witness accounts, and a business’s own history of incidents together establish both the attack and the negligence behind it. Much of that sits in the hands of the business, and video is commonly overwritten within days, so preserving it early is central. So is documenting the whole of the harm, including a brain injury that may not be obvious at first and the lasting cost of a catastrophic injury.
If the other side argues that you were partly to blame, that argument only defeats your claim if you were more than half responsible; short of that it reduces what you receive by your share, and the side raising it has to prove it. There is also a deadline. Most claims of this kind have to be brought within about three years of the attack, which sounds generous until you remember that the video you need may be gone in a week.
The place where it happened decides most of the evidence.
Assaults tend to happen where people gather and where security is thin. Bars and restaurants at closing time, apartment buildings with poor lighting or a broken entry door, parking areas, and transit stops all see violent incidents, and in each of them the question is not only who struck the blow but who was responsible for keeping the place reasonably safe. Where an attack happens often decides whether a negligent business shares the blame.
Location shapes the evidence as much as it shapes the risk. Police document serious assaults and produce the report that a civil claim is built around. Most of these settings, whether a storefront, a building entrance or a parking area, have cameras whose footage can capture both the attack and the security failures around it. That video is routinely overwritten within days unless somebody formally demands it, which makes preserving it one of the most urgent steps after a violent incident.
The hour matters as much as the address. A venue that is calm at seven and crowded at one in the morning owes a different level of care at each, and a business that staffs for the quiet half of its night is making a choice that can be documented later.
A civil claim is handled separately from any criminal proceeding, in a different court, on its own timetable. Understanding how the local police and courts actually operate, and running a civil claim alongside a criminal case without disturbing it, is part of the work, and it directly affects the income a serious injury costs you during a long recovery.
The particulars of a place are usually what decide a negligent-security case. Whether the lighting was adequate, whether locks and cameras worked, how much security was present, and whether the business already knew about earlier trouble all speak to whether it met its duty. In a compact, walkable town, witnesses, neighbors, other customers and passers-by are frequently close at hand, and identifying them quickly can make the difference in a disputed claim.
Earlier incidents at the same address carry particular weight. Police call histories, past assault reports, and complaints from tenants or customers can show that a business was on notice of danger and failed to respond, and gathering those local records early is part of building a claim that holds the responsible business to account.
A dense residential area means many attacks happen in and around housing, in apartment entryways, shared hallways and parking areas, where a landlord’s security choices are squarely at issue. Others happen along commercial streets and near transit stops, where the business or the operator is the party with a duty. Matching the investigation to the particular setting, residential, commercial or public, is part of identifying every responsible party and the insurance that stands behind them.
An attack takes more than the injuries you can see.
The harm from a violent attack reaches far past the emergency room. A complete claim accounts for the medical care and surgery an assault can require, for the pain, the trauma, and the lasting fear that follow a violent event, often including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress, and for any scarring or lasting disability a serious beating can cause. It also has to account for time and income lost during recovery, and a full and careful accounting of every present and future cost is exactly what an insurer works hardest to minimize.
The psychological injury deserves particular attention, because it is real, it is compensable, and it is easy for an insurer to overlook. A scar, a lingering disability and the cost of surgery are visible and countable. The panic in a crowded room, the disrupted sleep, the strain on work and relationships, and the withdrawal from ordinary life are none of those things, and they are just as much a part of what the attack took. Treating professionals can document those effects, and a claim that leaves them out is valuing the visible injuries and calling it the whole.
Income is the part people underestimate. Time off work is obvious, but a serious attack can also change what someone is able to earn afterward, whether that is a trade they can no longer do safely, shifts they can no longer take, or a career they step away from while they recover. That future gap belongs in the claim alongside the wages already lost.
Scarring sits in both columns at once. It is a physical injury with a documented medical cost, and it is also something a person carries into every room for the rest of their life, which is a separate harm and is treated as one.
Timing decides how much of this can be proved. The single best piece of evidence is the security video, and it is routinely overwritten within days, because a business has little reason to keep proof of its own failure. A formal demand to preserve that footage and the records around it is frequently the most important step in the entire case, and it is not something an injured person is well placed to manage in the days after an attack.
The other side is not neutral about any of this. A business’s insurer employs adjusters and lawyers whose work is to argue that the attack could not have been foreseen and that the harm is smaller than it looks. Someone acting alone is unlikely to secure the video in time or to establish the security failures that sit behind the attack. Where an attack proves fatal, the question becomes what the loss entitles a family to recover, and that is a different accounting again.
None of this is work a person should be doing while they are still healing. Understanding what a claim may involve, what evidence has to be preserved before it is gone, and what the case may realistically be worth is what allows a decision to be made in an informed way rather than a rushed one. The aim throughout is that someone harmed by violence, and by the failure that allowed it, is not left carrying the cost alone.
Medical Care and Surgery
Emotional and Psychological Harm
Scarring and Lasting Disability
Lost Wages and Income
What you do first decides how much can be proved.
Get medical care and a police report
Get medical care right away, both to treat and document your injuries, and make sure the attack is reported to the Brookline police. If you safely can, note the cameras and the names of any witnesses.
Move fast to preserve the video
Surveillance footage from a bar, building, or store is often the best proof of the attack and security failure, and it is overwritten in days, so a prompt demand to preserve it makes a claim provable.
Talk to a lawyer before you settle
A civil claim is separate from any criminal case, and a business's insurer will move to minimize it, so before you accept any offer or give any statement, a free review shows what your claim is worth.
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A Brookline assault and battery lawyer can review your case.
If you were attacked, you may be able to recover from the attacker and from any business whose failed security helped it happen, whether or not there is a criminal case. A conversation with our team, or with the wider injury practice in Boston, can set out what happened, what evidence has to be preserved before it is gone, and what your claim may realistically be worth, so that whatever you decide next is a decision you have made with the facts in front of you rather than one an insurer has made for you.
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Larson Law helps injured people and families across Massachusetts after a serious accident. If you were hurt by someone else’s carelessness in Boston, we are ready to listen and explain your options at no cost.
The same questions come up after almost every attack.
Can I bring a claim if there's no criminal case?
Yes. A civil claim stands entirely apart from any criminal prosecution and uses a lower standard of proof. You can recover even if the attacker was never arrested or charged, was acquitted, or was never identified. The civil case is about compensating your losses, not about punishing anyone.
The attacker has no money. Can I still recover?
Often, through a third party. If a business or property owner failed to provide reasonable security and that failure allowed the attack, its insurance can pay for your harm. That negligent-security claim is frequently the real source of a meaningful recovery when the attacker cannot pay.
What is a negligent security claim?
It is a claim that a property owner or business did not take reasonable steps, adequate lighting, working locks, security staff, crowd control, to protect people from a foreseeable attack. Where that failure helped an assault happen, the business can be held responsible alongside the attacker.
How do you prove who's responsible?
With evidence that fades quickly: surveillance video, the police report, medical records, witness accounts, and a business’s record of prior incidents and security practices. Because a business controls much of it and overwrites video within days, moving fast to preserve everything is essential to proving the case.
Does a criminal conviction help my civil case?
It can, as strong evidence, but it is not required. Because the civil standard of proof is lower, you can win your civil claim without a conviction, and the two proceed separately. We coordinate the civil case so it advances without interfering with any criminal proceeding.
What if the attacker was never identified?
You may still have a claim against a negligent business that failed to protect you, because that claim does not depend on naming the attacker. Establishing the property owner’s failure and its role in the attack can support a full recovery even when the assailant is unknown.
How long do I have to file?
Most civil claims must be brought within three years, though the exact deadline can depend on the facts. It is best to act quickly regardless, because the surveillance video and records that prove a negligent-security claim can disappear within days of the attack.
What is my assault and battery claim worth?
It depends on the severity of your injuries and their lasting physical and emotional effect, not on an insurer’s first offer. A fair value accounts for medical care, lost income, any scarring or disability, and the trauma, anxiety, and fear that a violent attack so often leaves.
Is emotional trauma part of the claim?
Yes. The psychological harm of a violent attack, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, sleeplessness, and the strain on work and relationships, is real and compensable. Documenting it with treating professionals is an important part of valuing the claim fully rather than settling for the visible injuries.
Do I need a lawyer for this?
For a serious attack, yes. These cases require identifying the right defendant, finding the insurance that can pay, and preserving evidence before it vanishes, all while you recover. Your own advocate handles the investigation and the insurer with discretion, so you can focus on healing.
What does hiring you cost?
Nothing upfront. These cases are handled on a contingency fee, so you owe no attorney fee unless we recover for you, and the first consultation is free and private. That lets you pursue a full recovery without any financial risk of your own.
Do you handle attacks outside Brookline?
Yes. We represent assault and battery victims across Massachusetts, not only in Brookline, including Boston and the neighboring communities. Wherever the attack happened, we can find the responsible parties, preserve the evidence, and pursue the full recovery you are owed.
Results Disclaimer: Past case results, settlements, and verdicts mentioned on this website do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Every case is unique and depends on its own facts and legal issues.