Section 4 public order offence

[inthemire]

Have namechanged for this. I am very scared. I am male. I am a nurse. I am in my 40's. I am due in court soon charged with a Section 4 public order offence. Road incident that got out of hand. I was assaulted, the person who assaulted me has been charged with that offence, the CPS are now charging me as after the assault a bystander got involved and as I had been assaulted and I thought the other person was being very nice to the other person things got a bit heated.
No blows were exchanged just heated words and a few gesticulations. According to the CPS my behaviour was likely to cause alarm, harrasment and threat of violence to others. As far as I know the other party has not made a complaint it seems just that the CPS have read the statements and decied I should be held accountable.
I have never been in trouble with the police.
How deep in the shit am I?

Assuming the offence is not racially aggravated, for a first time offence if you plead not guilty but are convicted the starting point magistrates use is a low level community order. The maximum you can get is 6 months custody and a fine but that won't happen on the facts you have posted here. It is possible that you may only get a fine if the magistrates think there are mitigating factors or you plead guilty.

first offence - facts exactly as you state, my guess is a fine max!

I imagine his real concern is whether he could lose his job though?

The key with s.4 is that you have to have had both the intention to cause and actually cause harassment alarm or distress (for s. 4A)

or

(and I paraphrase massively here) cause someone to fear violence (for s4(1)(a)

many a case has been thrown out because although the behaviour was threatening/abusive/insulting no one was actually that bothered by it. Based on your comments in the OP (lack of complaint) it may well be that the case is not made out.

Do you have decent legal representation?