Duress in American law facts for kids

Duress, also known as coercion, is a legal idea where someone is forced to do something because of threats, violence, or extreme pressure. Imagine someone making you do something you really don't want to do, and you only do it because you're scared of what will happen if you don't. In law, if you act under duress, you admit you did the action, but you argue that you shouldn't be held responsible because you were forced. It's like saying, "Yes, I did it, but only because I had no other choice!"

Understanding Duress in Law

When someone uses the defense of duress, they are saying they broke a rule or law, but they did it because they were under extreme, unlawful pressure. They might have even intended to do the action to avoid harm. However, they claim they shouldn't be fully blamed because their will was overwhelmed by the threats.

Sometimes, if duress is proven, it means the action wasn't considered a crime at all. Other times, it might mean the person gets a lighter punishment because of the difficult situation they were in. The main idea is that the threats were so strong, they would have made an average person act the same way.

When Duress Can Be a Defense

For duress to be a valid defense, certain things usually need to be true:

• The threat must be about serious harm or even death.
• The harm you are trying to avoid must be much worse than the harm caused by the action you were forced to do.
• The threat must be immediate, meaning it's happening right now or will happen very soon, and there's no way to escape it.
• You must not have put yourself in the dangerous situation on purpose.

For example, if someone threatens to hurt your family unless you steal something, that could be duress. However, duress is generally not a defense for very serious crimes like murder, especially if it means harming another innocent person. The law usually says you can't take an innocent life, even to save your own.

Duress in Agreements

Duress can also happen when people make agreements or contracts. A contract is a formal agreement between two or more people or groups.

Physical Duress in Agreements

Physical duress means someone uses threats of violence or actual violence to make another person sign an agreement. It's like the classic "your money or your life" situation.

Threats to a Person

If someone threatens to hurt you to make you sign a contract, that's duress. For example, in a famous case, a person was threatened with murder to sign a business deal. Even if there were other reasons to sign, if the threat was part of why they signed, the agreement could be cancelled. The person who made the threat would then have to prove that their threat had no effect on the decision.

Threats to Goods

This happens when one person refuses to give back another person's belongings until they sign an agreement. For instance, a company might refuse to return a repaired helicopter until the owner agrees to pay more money, even if the repair wasn't done well. If the owner signs under this pressure, the agreement might be cancelled later.

Economic Duress in Agreements

Economic duress is when someone uses unfair financial pressure to force another person to agree to terms they wouldn't normally accept. It's not about physical threats, but about money and business.

What Makes it Economic Duress?

For economic duress to be a valid argument, these things are usually needed:

• An unfair or improper threat: This could be a threat to break an existing agreement without a good reason, or to unfairly hold back money that is owed.
• No other reasonable choice: The person being threatened must feel like they have no other way out. If they could easily get help from the law, find another supplier, or get money from somewhere else, then it's not economic duress.
• The threat actually caused the agreement: The threat must be the real reason the person signed the contract. This looks at things like the person's age, education, and whether they could get advice.
• The other person caused the financial trouble: Usually, the person making the threat must have caused the financial difficulty in the first place, or at least taken unfair advantage of it.

Unusual Cases of Duress

Sometimes, in criminal law, if a person is found to be legally insane because they believed a higher power told them to commit a crime, it can be seen as a form of duress. It's like they were forced by a powerful delusion.

See also

In Spanish: Coacción para niños

• Tiger kidnapping
• English contract law
• English criminal law
• United States contract law
• Criminal law of the United States
• Self-sacrifice in Halacha (Jewish law)