---
title: O.C.G.A. § 16-5-20. Simple assault.
collection: code
id: 16-5-20
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 16-5-20 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-5-20
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-5-20.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-5-20/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t16-ch1-6-(v14)-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=e7841a34_0#page=87
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CRIMES AND OFFENSES / CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON / ASSAULT AND BATTERY
---

# O.C.G.A. § 16-5-20. Simple assault.

(a) A person commits the offense of simple assault when he or she either:

(1) Attempts to commit a violent injury to the person of another; or

(2) Commits an act which places another in reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury.

(b) Except as provided in subsections (c) through (i) of this Code section, a person who commits the offense of simple assault shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(c) Any person who commits the offense of simple assault in a public transit vehicle or station shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished for a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature. As used in this Code section, the term “public transit vehicle” means a bus, van, or rail car used for the transportation of passengers within a system which receives a subsidy from tax revenues or is operated under a franchise contract with a county or municipality of this state.

(d) If the offense of simple assault is committed between past or present spouses, persons who are parents of the same child, parents and children, stepparents and stepchildren, foster parents and foster children, or other persons excluding siblings living or formerly living in the same household, the defendant shall be punished for a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature. In no event shall this subsection be applicable to corporal punishment administered by a parent or guardian to a child or administered by a person acting in loco parentis.

(e) Reserved.

(f) Any person who commits the offense of simple assault against an employee of a public school system of this state while such employee is engaged in official duties or on school property shall, upon conviction of such offense, be punished for a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature. As used in this Code section, the term “school property” shall include public school buses and stops for public school buses as designated by local school boards of education.

(g) Any person who commits the offense of simple assault against a female who is pregnant at the time of the offense shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished for a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature.

(h) Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to permit the prosecution of:

(1) Any person for conduct relating to an abortion for which the consent of the pregnant woman, or person authorized by law to act on her behalf, has been obtained or for which such consent is implied by law;

(2) Any person for any medical treatment of the pregnant woman or her unborn child; or

(3) Any woman with respect to her unborn child.

As used in this subsection, the term “unborn child” means a member of the species Homo sapiens at any stage of development who is carried in the womb.

(i) Any person who commits the offense of simple assault upon a utility worker while such worker is acting within the course and scope of his or her employment or is performing official duties at the time of the offense shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished for a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature.

## History

Laws 1833, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, p. 787.; Code 1863, §§ 4256, 4257; Code 1868, §§ 4291, 4292; Code 1873, §§ 4357, 4358; Code 1882, §§ 4357, 4358; Penal Code 1895, §§ 95, 96; Penal Code 1910, §§ 95, 96; Code 1933, §§ 26-1401, 26-1402; Code 1933, § 26-1301, enacted by Ga. L. 1968, p. 1249, § 1; Ga. L. 1991, p. 971, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 1999, p. 381, § 2; Ga. L. 1999, p. 562, § 2; Ga. L. 2004, p. 621, § 1; Ga. L. 2005, p. 60, § 16/HB 95; Ga. L. 2006, p. 643, § 1/SB 77; Ga. L. 2021, p. 384, § 1/HB 363; Ga. L. 2024, p. 646, § 3/HB 1033, effective May 6, 2024; Ga. L. 2025, p. 1029, § 16(2)/SB 153, effective July 1, 2025.

## Editor's Notes

Ga. L. 2024, p. 646, § 1/HB 1033, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “This Act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘Utility Worker Protection Act.’”

Ga. L. 2024, p. 646, § 8/HB 1033, not codified by the General Assembly, makes the amendments to this Code section applicable to all offenses committed on or after July 1, 2024.

## Amendments

The 2021 amendment, effective July 1, 2021, substituted “Reserved.” for the former provisions of subsection (e), which read: “Any person who commits the offense of simple assault against a person who is 65 years of age or older shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished for a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature.”

The 2024 amendment, effective May 6, 2024, substituted “through (i)” for “through (h)” in subsection (b), and added subsection (i). See Editor’s notes for applicability.

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “As used in this Code section, the term” for “For purposes of this Code section,” in subsections (c) and (f); substituted “As used in” for “For the purposes of” and substituted “Homo sapiens” for “homo sapiens” in the undesignated paragraph following paragraph (h)(3); and, in subsection (i), substituted “his or her” for “their”.