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Duress and undue influence essentially means that a person or party has been forced into a contract. The contract cannot be considered to be a valid agreement under these circumstances.

Duress operates at common law. Pressure not amounting to duress may give rise to an action for undue influence in equity. The effect of a finding of duress and undue influence is that the contract is voidable. The innocent party may rescind the contract and claim damages.

Contracts must be entered into freely by both of the parties and include mutual assent. Sometimes mutual assent can be affected by coercion or pressure to enter the contract. Duress and undue influence are situations that affect mutual assent and make a contract void or voidable.

A contract induced by physical duress—threat of bodily harm—is void; a contract induced by improper threats—another type of duress—is voidable. Voidable also are contracts induced by undue influence, where a weak will is overborne by a stronger one.

To do something under duress means to do it because someone forces you to do it or threatens you. [formal] He thought her confession had been made under duress. You may also like.

In contract law, duress occurs when a person is influenced to sign a contract under pressure. ... If you sign a contract or commit a crime under duress, a court may find that the entire contract is invalid or that you are not guilty of a crime.

In jurisprudence, undue influence is an equitable doctrine that involves one person taking advantage of a position of power over another person. This inequity in power between the parties can vitiate one party's consent as they are unable to freely exercise their independent will.

Undue influence is taking advantage of another person, through a position of trust, in the formation of a contract. Undue influence always involves a relationship between the two parties, with one party in a superior position over the other.

Undue influence in contract law is the inappropriate pressure (or the unlawful intensity of persuasion) applied by a trusted, more powerful party on a trusting, less powerful party to enter into (or refrain from entering into) a legally binding agreement (written or oral) against their will, which falls slightly short ...

To prove undue influence, a party must show that one party to the contract is a person with weaknesses which make him likely to be affected by such persuasion, and that the party exercising the persuasion is someone in a special relationship with the victim that makes the victim especially susceptible to such ...