Duress

• Wrongful or improper threat.
• “Contract” signed under duress is not a contract.
  • ex. Threatened at gunpoint.
  • ex. Will prosecute you unless you sign a contract.
  • Threaten to use civil process in bad faith (embarrassment).
  • Good faith/Fair Dealing Breach.
• If a deal is fair, then the contract is legitimate.
• Deal is unfair and wrongful in these instances:
  • An act is threatened to harm recipient and not benefit the party making threat.
  • The effectiveness of the threat would be increased by prior unfair dealing.
  • An act threatened is otherwise a use of power for illegitimate ends.