FAKE
and
Gay
Small text is
FAKE
and
Gay
Under Duress
Many of us have grown up believing in the general infallibility of the written contract. And while the written contract does indeed hold a tremendous degree of legal clout, it’s not always the end-all, be-all solution for every court case. In fact, some contracts are considered void in special circumstances, such as when a person is believed to have signed the contract under duress.
For example, it’s not legal to force someone to sign a contract at gunpoint; if it was, then without the idea of “signing under duress,” someone could hypothetically get anyone to sign anything. Instead, the justice system recognizes that some contracts are not valid because of the state of mind that the signee was under when signing. Let’s examine this idea further.
Defining Duress
In the previous “held-at-gunpoint” example, the idea of duress was taken to an extreme. The actual definition of duress is simply a measurement of coercion or force not necessarily because a weapon has been drawn. Any type of threats, intended harm or stress put upon a person in order to get them to perform an act they would not normally perform would be considered duress. A contract is not validly signed unless it is signed by each participant’s own accord and own free will.
This can lead to some loose definitions of duress, of course, but any type of coercion placed on a contract can indeed render it invalid; after all, that allows one person to take advantage of another person against their will. But proving that one was under duress is another problem entirely.
Good Morning Freddy