What is considered personal injury?

Bodily injuries, Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as certain provisions of the legal acts regulating legal relations, are established like any human injuries. But the legislator distinguishes three main types of bodily injury. The severity of each of them depends on the harm that was caused by the offender to the injured party:

1. Lungs. These are bruises, bruises, that is, those that did not cause significant damage to health. And they pass relatively quickly.
2. Average. These are injuries that have an insignificant impact on health or have an impact on a person, but restoration of health does not require a long time. Bodily injuries classified as moderate are fractures, burns, injuries and stab wounds, but not affecting the health of a person’s internal organs.
3. Serious bodily injury is less common than moderate injury. They are characterized by significant damage caused to human health and psyche. Close attention of the person qualifying the crime should be paid to the fact that it is this severity of bodily injury that leads to a significant deterioration in health. And we are talking not only about physical injuries, but also about mental health.

REFERENCE: Article (111) – bodily injury includes injuries that resulted in death, death, or disability for a person. But this is a serious degree of harm.

What is minor bodily injury?

Bodily injuries are usually divided into three degrees, depending on the severity of the harm to health:

• grave - damage to the integrity of the human body, causing danger to life at the time of injury. Can lead to loss or rupture of an organ, disruption of the psychological state of the victim. Termination of pregnancy, facial disfigurement. Leading to long-term loss of performance, more than 70%;
• medium - damage to health that is not life-threatening, does not lead to surgical interventions, does not disrupt the functioning of organs and does not injure the mental state of the victim, but can lead to health problems. This degree of damage can lead to an inability to work no more than 10%;
• mild - leads to a slight loss of performance, may lead to minor harm to health.

These crimes are considered criminal. The damage can lead to the victim’s loss of ability to work for up to 3 months and deterioration in health.

For medical registration of injuries, it is necessary to have visible marks left on the body: bruises, abrasions, swelling. If the victim receives one blow, the consequences are unlikely, and the perpetrator of the incident cannot be held criminally liable even for minor injuries.

How are they determined and recorded?

Damage to health must be recorded for further progress of the case and punishment of the offender. A medical opinion is required so that a person can contact the police, court, or prosecutor's office.

REFERENCE: It is prohibited to independently determine injuries, even if the victim is a medical professional! The examination is carried out by a third party, a doctor.

The degree of severity is determined by specialists who work in forensic medicine. In the process of examining a person, they are obliged to:

• explore the features of the case being studied;
• analyze the situation in which the harm occurred;
• examine the person and diagnose the degree of damage to his health;
• assign an approximate time interval during which complete restoration of the patient’s health is possible.

Forensic experts determine the causes of injuries received by the person who contacts them. When determining a serious type of bodily injury, specialists are required to draw up a special report. It will act as the main evidence of the expert opinion in court. The judge, when choosing a punishment for a criminal, is guided by this document.

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Aggravating circumstances

The circumstances in which illegal acts are committed are varied. In a number of situations, bodily injuries can serve as an aggravating circumstance within another crime being committed or already completed. This situation complicates the trial and also increases the responsibility of the offender.

The court, accepting bodily injuries as circumstances aggravating the guilt of the violator of the law, focuses on the following:

1. The severity of harm to a person’s health caused during the commission of another crime. If the victim received scratches, then they may not be taken into account by specialists.
2. Circumstances in which harm to health is caused.
3. The presence of evidence that they were inflicted with intent. It is necessary to prove such damage during the investigation of a criminal case using video, photos, and witness testimony.
4. Assignment of sentence terms: the term for bodily injuries, if proven, and the term for the main act are not summed up with arithmetical precision. The court will take into account many circumstances and facts: the conditions of the crime, the identity of the offender, the types of damage and the nature of the main act.

Three main types of bodily injury

The classification is based on the severity and size of the punishment.

Minor bodily injury

Minor harm to health Article 111, 115, 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and punishment:

Options for punishment under Art. 115, 116, 116.1:

• compulsory work (360 hours);
• imprisonment (duration – 2 years);
• repeated: fine – 40,000, compulsory work – 240 hours, (correctional) work – up to 6 months;
• arrest 4 months
• + aggravating circumstances of the commission of this offense.

REFERENCE: if the damage to health does not entail serious consequences for the person, or does not fall under one of the qualifying signs of a criminal act, then criminal liability can be avoided.

Moderate bodily injury

Punishment under Art. 112 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:

Serious bodily harm

The peculiarity of the punishment for causing harm of this gravity is that there are no alternative options for deprivation of liberty to vary the punishment. For example, the Criminal Code allows for committing this crime to deprive a person of freedom for a long time: up to 8 years.

For a period of more than 8 years, a person is punished for this crime, provided that the crime was committed with the following actions:

• subsequent use of human organs and tissues;
• using weapons;
• in relation to a person who is unable to defend himself;
• for hire, etc.

A person does not always commit an illegal act alone. In many cases, a group of people is organized who harbor malicious plans. Therefore, when communities and groups commit illegal actions, regardless of the object of their attacks, criminal liability for harm to health is much stricter.

For example, the offense of causing grievous bodily harm will be punishable by imprisonment for up to 12 years, provided that they were inflicted by a group of persons.

If, after a beating that caused severe damage to a person’s health, the latter died, then liability will increase to 15 years of restriction of freedom.

Court decisions

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The term was reduced by 6 times: defense of the accused under Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Mitigation of the sentence under Art. 159 part 4: is it possible to reduce the punishment for fraud on a particularly large scale?

Article - fraud: how to get rid of unfounded accusations?

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Unfounded charge of causing grievous bodily harm

If a person is accused of beating and this is unfounded, you must follow the advice:

1. Providing an alibi: testimony of witnesses, photos, video from cameras that this person could not have caused harm to another person, since he was not at the scene of the incident at that moment.
2. Answer questions from the bodies of inquiry and investigation. You can't hide from them. On the contrary: cooperate, interact with them in order to identify, detect, and punish the real criminal.

REFERENCE: it is the responsibility of the inquiry and investigation authorities, as well as the victim himself, to prove that a specific person inflicted the beating. If a person is suspected of something he did not commit, it is in his interests to involve himself in collecting evidence of the absence of his guilt. But this is not his legal duty.

For those who, for some reason, slander a citizen and write a statement against him to the police, his actions are qualified as a knowingly false denunciation.
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Is it possible to get a prison sentence for serious bodily injury?

Since the crimes provided for in Article 111 of the Criminal Code are classified as grave and especially grave, the punishment for causing grievous bodily harm is also very severe and most often the trial for the accused ends with a real term of imprisonment. However, the punishment provided for grievous bodily harm depends on many factors, ranging from the personality of the accused to the mood of the judge with whom he woke up on the day of the hearing.

The amount of sentences imposed varies depending on the severity of the act and the characteristics of the accused. For example, in a typical stabbing case under Part 1 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a previously unconvicted person is usually given 2-3 years in a general regime colony.

Under parts 2 or 3 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code, the punishment will almost certainly be even higher, and under part 4, the “fork” of the term imposed by the court is usually approximately between 6 and 9 years of actual imprisonment.

As for the suspended sentence, the chances for it under this article remain, especially if we are talking about part 1 of Art. 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the accused has not been previously convicted and has mitigating circumstances. Read about how to get a suspended sentence for serious bodily injuries in a separate article on our website at:

Dear visitors of the site “Condition”! This article describes the most typical judicial practice in cases of serious bodily harm. However, each case is individual and requires more detailed study. If you would like to ask a more specific question about a specific case or situation, please ask our lawyers. It's free!