Penal Code 273.5 PC: Corporal Injury Penalties and Defenses

California Penal Code 273.5 makes it a crime to willfully inflict a physical injury on a spouse, former spouse, cohabitant, dating partner, fiancé, or co-parent when the injury leaves any visible or internal wound. It is a “wobbler,” which means prosecutors can file it as a misdemeanor carrying up to one year in county jail or as a felony carrying up to four years in state prison, with fines reaching $6,000 either way.¹ A conviction also reaches well past the sentence itself, into firearm rights, immigration status, child custody, and professional licensing.

What the Prosecution Has to Prove

Three elements make up the charge. The act had to be willful, meaning the physical contact was intentional rather than accidental. The contact had to cause a “corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition.” And the victim has to fall within one of the protected relationship categories the statute lists.¹

The phrase “traumatic condition” sounds severe, but the legal threshold is low. The statute defines it as any wound or bodily injury, minor or serious, caused by physical force. A small bruise counts. Redness or swelling that fades within hours counts. Internal injuries not visible to an observer qualify too. The statute specifically includes injuries from strangulation or suffocation, meaning pressure on the throat or neck sufficient to interfere with breathing or blood flow.¹ Scene photographs and medical records are the usual proof.

Willfulness means the person intended the physical act, not that they intended to break a law or even intended to injure anyone. Throwing an object in anger that strikes a partner meets the element because the throw was deliberate, even if the thrower claims they were not aiming at the person. Causation then has to connect the act to the injury: under the standard jury instructions, the traumatic condition must be a natural and probable consequence of the force used, the force must be a direct and substantial factor in causing it, and the injury would not have happened without the defendant’s conduct.²

Who Counts as a Protected Victim

The statute only applies when the victim shares a specific relationship with the defendant. Four categories are covered:

Current and former spouses, including those separated but not yet divorced.
Current and former cohabitants in a relationship beyond a standard roommate arrangement.
Current and former fiancés and anyone the defendant has had a dating relationship with.
The mother or father of the defendant’s child, whether or not the couple ever lived together or married.

If the alleged victim does not fit one of these categories, 273.5 does not apply and prosecutors have to use a different statute.¹

Cohabitation is the category that generates the most courtroom disputes. The statute makes clear that holding yourself out as someone’s spouse is not required.³ Courts look at whether the relationship had real continuity and substance: shared financial responsibilities, how long the arrangement lasted, joint use of the home, and whether the relationship resembled a partnership rather than a cost-sharing deal between roommates.

How 273.5 Differs From Domestic Battery

Penal Code 273.5 is often confused with Penal Code 243(e)(1), California’s domestic battery statute. The dividing line is injury. Under 243(e)(1), any offensive or harmful touching of a protected person is enough, even if nothing visible results. Under 273.5, the prosecution has to prove an actual physical injury that produced a traumatic condition. A push during an argument that leaves no mark can support 243(e)(1) but falls short of 273.5. The distinction matters because 243(e)(1) is always a misdemeanor, while 273.5 opens the door to felony charges and state prison.

Penalties

Because 273.5 is a wobbler, the prosecutor decides on filing as a misdemeanor or felony based on the severity of the injury, the circumstances of the incident, and the defendant’s record. The two tracks look very different:

Misdemeanor: up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $6,000, or both.
Felony: two, three, or four years in state prison, a fine of up to $6,000, or both.

For felony sentencing, the middle term of three years is the presumptive sentence. The lower two-year term is available where mitigating factors are present; the upper four-year term is reserved for aggravating circumstances.¹

Prior Convictions Within Seven Years

A new 273.5 charge brought within seven years of a qualifying prior conviction carries steeper exposure. The sentencing range jumps to two, four, or five years in state prison, and the maximum fine doubles to $10,000.³ Qualifying priors include not only previous 273.5 convictions but also battery against a spouse under PC 243(e), sexual battery under PC 243.4, assault with caustic chemicals under PC 244, assault with a stun gun or laser under PC 244.5, and assault with a deadly weapon under PC 245.

If the court grants probation to a defendant with priors, mandatory minimum jail time kicks in: at least 15 days for one qualifying prior within seven years, at least 60 days for two or more.³

Great Bodily Injury Enhancement

When the victim suffers serious injury beyond ordinary bruising, prosecutors can add a great bodily injury enhancement under PC 12022.7. In domestic violence cases, that enhancement adds five years to the prison sentence and stacks on top of the base term. A defendant convicted of felony 273.5 at the four-year upper term with the enhancement attached is looking at nine years.

What Probation Looks Like

When a judge grants probation instead of prison, Penal Code 1203.097 imposes a detailed set of mandatory conditions. Probation itself has to last at least 36 months.⁴ The required conditions include:

Completion of a batterer’s intervention program lasting at least one year, with consecutive weekly sessions of at least two hours, progress reports to the court every three months, and completion within 18 months. Missing sessions without an excused absence can trigger a probation violation.⁴
A minimum $500 payment to a fund supporting local shelters and programs, with reduction or waiver available for defendants who genuinely cannot pay.⁴
A criminal protective order shielding the victim from violence, threats, stalking, sexual abuse, and harassment, which can include stay-away conditions and residence exclusion.⁴
A specified number of community service hours set by the court.
Victim restitution for reasonable expenses from the offense, including medical bills, therapy, and lost wages. Separately, the court can order payments to a domestic violence shelter program of up to $5,000, but that obligation cannot displace direct victim restitution or court-ordered child support.⁴

Violating any of these conditions gives the court authority to revoke probation and impose the original suspended sentence.

Firearm Rights

A conviction under 273.5, even as a misdemeanor, triggers a lifetime federal ban on possessing or purchasing firearms and ammunition under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9).⁵ It applies regardless of how California courts treat the case, and many defendants do not learn about it until after entering a plea.

Lifting the ban is extraordinarily difficult. Federal law technically allows relief through an application to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but Congress has not funded the processing of those applications in decades, making the relief mechanism effectively unavailable. A California state expungement does not remove the federal firearms disability.⁶

Immigration Consequences

For non-citizens, a 273.5 conviction can be devastating. Federal immigration law makes any person deportable who is convicted of a “crime of domestic violence” after being admitted to the United States. The statute does not require a felony. A misdemeanor plea to 273.5 is enough to trigger removal proceedings.⁷ Violating a protective order issued in the case can serve as an independent ground for deportation.

When the conviction involves serious bodily harm or repeated violations of a protective order, federal authorities may treat it as an aggravated felony for immigration purposes, which effectively eliminates available immigration relief. Any non-citizen facing a 273.5 charge should consult an immigration attorney before accepting any plea, because the immigration consequences can be more severe than the criminal sentence.

Child Custody

A 273.5 conviction has direct consequences in family court. Under California Family Code 3044, when a court finds that a parent has committed domestic violence within the previous five years, a rebuttable presumption arises that awarding sole or joint custody to that parent would be detrimental to the child’s best interest.⁸ A 273.5 conviction satisfies that finding.

The presumption can be rebutted, but only by the convicted parent, and only by a preponderance of the evidence showing custody would still serve the child’s best interests. In practice the other parent starts with a significant advantage, and overcoming the presumption typically requires completion of a batterer’s intervention program along with sustained evidence of changed circumstances.

Professional Licensing

California licensing boards can deny, suspend, or revoke a professional license when the applicant or licensee has been convicted of a crime substantially related to the duties of the profession within the preceding seven years.⁹ Domestic violence convictions often clear that threshold because boards treat them as reflecting on character and fitness to practice.

Healthcare workers, attorneys, teachers, and others holding state-issued credentials should take the risk seriously. Discipline is not automatic. Boards investigate, weigh factors like time since the conviction and evidence of rehabilitation, and hold hearings. But suspension or revocation is a real possibility. Most boards also require self-reporting of criminal convictions, and failing to disclose can independently trigger discipline even if the underlying offense would not have.

Defenses That Get Raised

A handful of defenses come up regularly in 273.5 cases, and the strength of each depends on the facts.

Self-defense. California law permits reasonable force to protect yourself or others from an immediate threat of harm. The defense works in domestic cases the same way it works anywhere else, and the central question is proportionality. Shoving someone away who is lunging at you is likely reasonable. Punching someone who called you a name is not.

False accusation. Domestic violence allegations are unusually susceptible to fabrication because incidents happen behind closed doors without independent witnesses. A partner in a bitter breakup or custody fight has motive to exaggerate or invent. The hard part is that once an accusation reaches police, the case often moves forward regardless of whether the accuser later changes their mind. Prosecutors can and do pursue charges even when the alleged victim asks to drop them.

No traumatic condition. Because 273.5 requires an actual physical injury producing a traumatic condition, the absence of photographs, medical records, or corroborating witnesses showing a bruise or mark is a gap in the prosecution’s case. Contact alone, without a resulting injury, might support 243(e)(1) but does not meet the 273.5 threshold.

Accident. The statute requires a willful act, so genuinely accidental contact is a defense. Bumping into someone while moving through a narrow hallway is not willful infliction of injury. The challenge is credibility: juries weigh explanations against visible injuries, and “it was an accident” sounds thin next to a photograph of a black eye.

1
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 273.5 – Corporal Injury to Spouse, Cohabitant, Fellow Parent, Fiance, Fiancee, or Dating Partner
2
Judicial Council of California. CALCRIM Jury Instructions
3
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 273.5
4
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1203.097
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
6
Supreme Court of the United States. United States v Rahimi
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens
8
California Legislative Information. California Family Code 3044
9
California Legislative Information. California Business and Professions Code 480