nevada
Where can i find a list of what is considered a serious bodily injury?
<p>What is actually considered a serious bodily injury in assault cases? Examples of words I am looking  for are shoulder  dislocation, bone fractures (what kind/how many), etc. Where is the list?</p>

<h2>“Serious” means what it means in English</h2>

<p>Courts look at the injury and decide if it’s serious or not. There is no predefined list.</p>

<p>While there are no lists, there are definitions, especially when it comes to criminal law. It depends on the specific law. In 1973, Montana had the following definitions</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>"Serious bodily injury" means bodily injury which creates a
  substantial risk of death or which causes serious permanent
  disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function or
  process of any bodily member or organ. It includes serious mental
  illness or impairment.</p>
  
  <p>"Bodily injury" means physical pain, illness, or any impairment of
  physical condition and includes mental illness or impairment</p>
</blockquote>

<p>(Cited from <a href="https://scholarship.law.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1752&amp;context=mlr" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this article</a>). The <a href="https://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/45/2/45-2-101.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">current version</a> of the term under Montana law (addition emphasized) is</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>(a) "Serious bodily injury" means bodily injury that: (i) creates a
  substantial risk of death; (ii) causes serious permanent disfigurement
  or protracted loss or impairment of the function or process of a
  bodily member or organ; or (iii) <em>at the time of injury, can reasonably
  be expected to result in serious permanent disfigurement or protracted
  loss or impairment of the function or process of a bodily member or
  organ</em>.</p>
  
  <p>(b) The term includes serious mental illness or impairment.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The third clause in the revised definition takes the term beyond ordinary word definitions. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2246#4" rel="nofollow noreferrer">18 USC 2246(4)</a> defines it as</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>bodily injury that involves a substantial risk of death,
  unconsciousness, extreme physical pain, protracted and obvious
  disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a
  bodily member, organ, or mental faculty;</p>
</blockquote>

<p>for purposed of federal laws related to sexual abuse. The inclusion of mental illness or impairment is significant, because mental impairments are outside the ordinary language scope of bodily injury – this was a deliberate choice. </p>

<p>There is an alternative term in Nevada, "substantial bodily harm", defined in <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/nevada/2010/preliminary-chapter/chapter0/nrs0-060.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NRS 0.060</a> as</p>

<blockquote>
  <ol>
  <li><p>Bodily injury which creates a substantial risk of death or which causes serious, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or
  impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ; or</p></li>
  <li><p>Prolonged physical pain.</p></li>
  </ol>
</blockquote>

<p>This is what is applicable to assault in Nevada, and not "serious bodily injury". Interestingly, "serious bodily injury" persist in <a href="https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-200.html#NRS200Sec278" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NRS 200.278</a>, which has to do with a person in secondary school who "unlawfully caused or attempted to cause serious bodily injury to another person", but the term is not defined statutorily and not distinguished from "substantial bodily harm".</p>
