California Penal Code 273.5 makes it a crime to willfully inflict a physical injury that produces a visible or internal wound on a spouse, former spouse, cohabitant, fiancé, dating partner, or the other parent of your child. It is a wobbler, meaning prosecutors can file it as either a misdemeanor or a felony. A first-offense misdemeanor carries up to one year in county jail; a felony carries two, three, or four years in state prison. A conviction at either level triggers a lifetime firearm ban, a mandatory year-long batterer’s intervention program, and a rebuttable presumption against child custody.
Who the Law Protects
A charge under Penal Code 273.5 only applies when the alleged victim falls into one of these categories:
- A current or former spouse.
- A current or former cohabitant, meaning someone you lived with in a romantic relationship. You do not need to have presented yourselves as married. Courts look at the totality of the relationship, including shared expenses, duration, and how long you shared a home.
- A fiancé, or a current or former dating partner. California defines a dating relationship as frequent, intimate contact primarily motivated by romantic or sexual interest.
- The other parent of your child, regardless of whether you ever lived together or dated.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 273.5
If the person you’re accused of injuring doesn’t fit one of these categories, Penal Code 273.5 doesn’t apply, though other assault or battery statutes might.
What Prosecutors Have to Prove
Two elements separate this charge from a routine assault. First, the act has to be willful. Second, the victim has to suffer a “traumatic condition.”
Willful means the physical act itself was deliberate, not that you intended the specific injury. Swinging during an argument and connecting with your partner’s face satisfies willfulness even if you didn’t plan to leave a bruise. A truly accidental contact — bumping into someone while turning — does not.
Traumatic condition sounds dramatic, but the threshold is lower than most people assume. It covers any wound or bodily injury, internal or external, caused by physical force. A bruise, red mark, scratch, swelling, or minor cut all qualify. The injury doesn’t have to be permanent or even painful. The statute specifically calls out strangulation and suffocation — applying pressure to the throat or neck that impedes normal breathing or circulation — as qualifying injuries, which is why prosecutors treat choking allegations seriously even when no mark appears on the victim’s neck.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 273.5
The prosecution also has to connect your force directly to the injury. Indirect harm can still qualify if the causal chain holds up.
How This Charge Differs From Domestic Battery
Penal Code 273.5 is often confused with Penal Code 243(e)(1), domestic battery. The dividing line is injury. Section 243(e)(1) requires only offensive or harmful touching, with no visible injury. Section 273.5 requires that the touching leave a traumatic condition. A shove that leaves no mark could be charged as 243(e)(1); the same shove that sends your partner into a wall and leaves a bruise can be charged as 273.5.
The penalty gap matters. Domestic battery under 243(e)(1) is always a misdemeanor, capped at one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.2California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 243 Section 273.5 can go felony with state prison time. Any photograph or medical record showing injury gives prosecutors reason to charge up.
Jail, Prison, and Fines
Because this is a wobbler, the stakes depend on whether the prosecutor files it as a misdemeanor or a felony. That decision usually turns on injury severity, the defendant’s record, and the circumstances of the incident.
Misdemeanor
Up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $6,000, or both.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 273.5 First-offense cases with minor injuries often draw probation instead of jail, but probation comes with its own demanding conditions.
Felony
Two, three, or four years in state prison, a fine of up to $6,000, or both. Courts default to the middle term of three years unless aggravating or mitigating factors push the sentence up or down.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 273.5
Enhancements for Prior Convictions
A new offense within seven years of a prior conviction for corporal injury (PC 273.5), assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury (PC 245), battery with serious bodily injury (PC 243(d)), sexual battery (PC 243.4), assault with caustic chemicals (PC 244), or assault with a stun gun (PC 244.5) raises the sentencing range to two, four, or five years in state prison and fines up to $10,000. A prior misdemeanor spousal battery under 243(e) within seven years brings its own enhancement track: two, three, or four years and fines up to $10,000.1California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 273.5
Great Bodily Injury Enhancement
When the victim’s injury goes beyond a routine traumatic condition — think broken bones, injuries requiring surgery, or significant concussions — prosecutors can add a great bodily injury enhancement under Penal Code 12022.7. In domestic violence cases that adds three, four, or five consecutive years to the prison sentence.3California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 12022.7 A four-year felony with this enhancement can turn into nine.
Probation Instead of Custody
Most first-time defendants get probation. It is not a light outcome. California law sets a minimum probation term of 36 months, during which the defendant has to:
- Complete a batterer’s intervention program lasting at least one year, with weekly group sessions of at least two hours. Sessions must run consecutively, the whole program must finish within 18 months, and the court allows no more than three excused absences across the entire program.
- File proof of enrollment in that program within 30 days of conviction.
- Pay a $500 fee, separate from any fines. The court can reduce or waive it only after finding the defendant can’t afford to pay.
- Obey a criminal protective order barring further violence, threats, stalking, or harassment, often including a stay-away order or exclusion from the shared residence.
- Perform a set number of community service hours.
The court may also order payments of up to $5,000 to a domestic violence shelter program and restitution to the victim for medical bills, counseling, lost wages, and property damage.4California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1203.0975California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1202.4 Violating any probation condition can revoke probation and impose the original jail or prison term.
Lifetime Firearm Ban
This is the consequence that catches people off guard. A conviction under Penal Code 273.5, even as a misdemeanor, triggers a lifetime ban on owning or possessing firearms under California law. Most California misdemeanor firearm restrictions last ten years; the legislature carved out an explicit exception for 273.5, with no time limit.6California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 29805
Federal law stacks on top. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence is permanently barred from shipping, transporting, possessing, or receiving any firearm or ammunition, with no exception for military or law enforcement personnel. Violating the federal ban is itself a felony carrying up to ten years in federal prison.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 922 – Unlawful Acts If you own firearms when you’re convicted, you have to surrender or transfer them.
Child Custody
A Penal Code 273.5 conviction within the previous five years creates a rebuttable presumption under California Family Code 3044 that giving the convicted parent sole or joint custody is against the child’s best interest. Rebuttable means you can try to overcome it, but you carry the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that custody serves the child’s interests.8California Legislative Information. California Family Code 3044 In practice, it’s a steep hill.
The same presumption can apply without a criminal conviction if the family court independently finds that domestic violence occurred, based on protective orders, witness statements, or communications. A pending criminal case will almost certainly affect any parallel custody dispute.
Immigration
For non-citizens, a conviction can be devastating. Federal law classifies a crime of domestic violence as a deportable offense. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(E), any non-citizen convicted of a crime of violence against a current or former spouse, cohabitant, co-parent, or someone in a similar domestic relationship is subject to removal.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens
The ripple effects go further. A domestic violence conviction can disrupt the five-year “good moral character” requirement for naturalization and block adjustment to lawful permanent resident status. For immigration purposes, a no-contest plea counts as a conviction. Even state diversion programs that require an admission of guilt may be treated as convictions, which negates the benefit of a later dismissal. Any non-citizen facing a 273.5 charge should talk to an immigration attorney before accepting any plea.
Professional Licenses
California licensing boards in healthcare, law, education, and other fields routinely review criminal convictions, and domestic violence offenses draw particular scrutiny because many boards treat them as crimes of moral turpitude. Consequences aren’t automatic. Boards investigate and weigh severity, how long ago the offense happened, and the licensee’s conduct since. The possible outcomes include suspension, revocation, or denial.
Many boards also require self-reporting within a set period. Failing to report can bring separate discipline on top of whatever follows from the conviction itself.
Defenses
Which defenses are viable depends entirely on the facts. The most common ones:
Self-Defense
If you reasonably believed you were in imminent danger and used only the force necessary to protect yourself, self-defense can be a complete defense. The force has to be proportional to the threat. Shoving someone who is swinging at you is proportional. Punching someone who poked your chest probably isn’t. Excessive force destroys the defense even if the other person started things.
Lack of Willfulness
A genuinely accidental injury isn’t a crime under this statute. Pulling away from a grab and inadvertently causing someone to fall can satisfy the willfulness defense when the physical evidence is consistent with an accident and there’s no history of threats or prior violence.
False Accusations
Domestic violence cases often happen behind closed doors with no independent witnesses, which makes them unusually open to fabricated allegations. False accusations surface frequently during custody fights, divorces, and relationship breakdowns. Inconsistencies between the accuser’s account and the physical evidence, a documented motive to fabricate, alibi evidence, or contradictory communications can all undermine the case.
No Traumatic Condition
If no evidence of injury exists, the charge may drop to misdemeanor domestic battery under 243(e)(1) or be dismissed. The prosecution has to prove the traumatic condition existed. When photographs, medical records, and witness observations don’t support any injury, that element fails.
What Happens After an Arrest
Police responding to a domestic disturbance call must make an arrest if they see signs of injury or have probable cause to believe a felony occurred. The defendant is often in custody before a prosecutor has even looked at the file. The district attorney then has 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays, to file charges or release the defendant.
Once charges are filed, the court almost always issues a criminal protective order at arraignment. That order can prohibit all contact with the alleged victim, require the defendant to move out of a shared home, and set a minimum stay-away distance. Violating the order is a separate crime. The protective order stays in place throughout the case and often for years after sentencing. Misdemeanor cases typically resolve in two to six months. Felony cases with preliminary hearings can run past a year.