Many martial arts courses sell themselves as providing you with the means of defending yourself when in danger, but how does the law view it when you do take your protection into your own hands?

As many recent cases have shown misjudging the fine line between what is and what is not permissible by way of self defence can land you in jail.

If you get it wrong and end up in court, the test the jury will be asked to apply is:

“Whether no reasonable man with knowledge of the facts as were known to the accused or those the accused honestly believed existed, in the circumstances and time available to the accused for reflection, could be of the opinion that the prevention of the risk of harm to which others might be exposed if the suspect were allowed to escape, justified exposing the suspect to the risk of harm to him that might result from the kind of force the accused contemplated using.”

If you are threatened in a pub and could simply have walked away, you will not be able to rely on self defence. It does not matter how undignified it would have seemed or how embarrassing it would have been in front of your friends.

If you know someone is dangerous and unpredictable and you walk over and put yourself in a position where you need to defend yourself, self defence will not assist. If you put yourself in danger, the Courts will not allow you to rely on the defence.

Whilst you are in danger, you are entitled to protect yourself. That right lasts only as long as the danger does. If you find an unorthodox use for a cricket bat on a fleeing suspect, that may be a satisfying revenge but it will not amount to self defence.

You also need to measure the type of force to all the circumstances. The jury will therefore be less forgiving of a skilled martial artist than say a terribly unfit lawyer.

Happily few people attack pasty lawyers like me, so a jury might understand that the lawyer had little time to consider the consequences of grabbing the pot of aspidistras on his desk and flailing it at his assailant. The martial artist’s training will mean that he is more prepared to deal with attacks (after all this is what his gym work is about) and it would be harder for him to persuade a jury member that he acted in the heat of the moment.

A martial artist skills should allow him to be a better judge of the force and harm he is inflicting. Hopefully the wheezing lawyer will have little experience of beating people with pots of aspidistras and less opportunity to consider whether or not this is a measured response.

A martial artist’s skills may also provide him with the means of controlling a suspect with less need to use force. The wheezing lawyer may feel that he needs to use more force (and a pot of aspidistras) to start to even his chances against his younger and fitter assailant.