Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

Effective consent is a term used by Tennessee law that allows a person who is charged with causing or threatening to cause bodily injury to another person to use as a defense the fact that the alleged victim effectively consented to the conduct. This defense is allowable under Tennessee law where the conduct in question did not actually cause or pose the risk of serious bodily injury or where the conduct and the harm involved were reasonably foreseeable hazards of any kind of planned or arranged activity not forbidden by law. For example, if Steve decides to play tackle football with his friends he can’t later go to the police and report that his friend assaulted him by tackling him and causing him injury. This is so because under the principle of effective consent, being tackled and injured as a result is a reasonably foreseeable consequence of playing tackle football. The situation might be different if Steve’s friend committed some physical act against him that was outside of the scope of the game, but if the injury and conduct naturally flowed from the game itself, the person who injured Steve could not be charged with assault, reckless endangerment, or any such crimes under Tennessee Law.

The principle of effective consent thus helps to ensure that people aren’t charged with crimes for engaging in what is essentially legal, although sometimes dangerous, conduct. Fairness is a basic principle that underlies the American judicial system and there would be nothing fair about allowing a person to consent to facing the risk of injury and then punishing the other participants when that person is in fact injured. Unfortunately, however, many Tennesseans find themselves in just such a situation when someone with whom they have participated in a planned or group activity is injured and seeks to hold them accountable. As explained above, assault or any other charges would be wrongful in this situation. Persons who are facing wrongful charges should contact an experienced criminal defense attorney who can assist them in contesting the charges and avoiding punishment.