The Elements and the Criteria of the Injury
Article 118 of the Criminal Code of Georgia defines intentional less serious bodily harm. Under its first part, this is an intentional less serious injury which is not dangerous to life and has not caused the result provided by law for grievous bodily harm, but is connected with prolonged disruption of health or with a persistent loss of general working capacity of less than one third.
Two boundaries of qualification are decisive here. On the one hand, the injury must not be dangerous to life and must not produce the grave result by which the law defines grievous harm; on the other, it must be accompanied by prolonged disruption of health or a persistent loss of working capacity of less than one third. This logic of boundaries means that in the case file the conclusion of the forensic medical examination is the central piece of evidence: it is precisely that conclusion which determines the category of the injury.
In interpreting the medical criteria two concepts are central. Prolonged disruption of health covers the interval of time fixed by forensic practice, whose boundary differs from the criteria of grievous harm; and the persistent loss of working capacity of less than one third precisely defines the threshold below which the injury remains less serious. The exact separation of these two concepts from grievous harm determines the entire course of the case.