An assault is an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another.
Cal. Penal Code § 240
Assault and Battery
Applied in 179 court decisions — leading case 1 Cal. 3d 444 - People v. Hood (1969)
Most recently applied in United States v. Sjodin (June 2025)
Enacted 1872.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.