Also known as: threats · threaten · threatens · threatened · threatening · menace
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A communicated expression of an intention to inflict harm or loss on another unless the recipient complies with a demand.
Timothy Tang approached Tori Taylor on a dark street and demanded her purse. When she hesitated, he stated he would stab her immediately if she refused. Taylor surrendered the purse. The threat supplied the intimidation element because it conveyed an immediate risk of serious physical injury.
Tabitha Taylor entered a convenience store and told the clerk she would shoot him right then if he did not empty the register. The clerk complied. The threat of immediate serious bodily injury satisfied the robbery definition even though no weapon was displayed.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Tobias Thomas told Tiffany Torres he would file criminal charges against her unless she signed a release of all claims. Torres signed under that pressure. The threat of prosecution rendered the release voidable because it was an improper inducement to assent.
Tara Tran raised her fist and declared she would strike Timothy Tang in the face if he did not step aside. Tang reasonably apprehended an imminent offensive touching. The threat alone supported an assault claim even though no blow landed.
Tori Taylor threatened to expose her uncle's criminal past unless he changed his will to name her sole beneficiary. The uncle executed the new will that same day. The threat of a wrongful act coerced the donative transfer and permitted a challenge to the will.
Officers knocked and announced at Tabitha Taylor's home. Hearing sounds consistent with flushing evidence, they entered without a warrant. The reasonable belief that evidence was being destroyed justified the entry even though the exigency arose after the knock.
The threat must convey an immediate risk of death or serious physical injury to the victim or someone in the victim's presence. Threats limited to property damage are insufficient unless the threat is to destroy the victim's dwelling.
A threat is improper if it involves a crime or tort, a criminal prosecution, or other conduct that leaves the victim no reasonable alternative. The resulting contract is then voidable by the victim.
The actor must intend to cause apprehension of an imminent battery and the plaintiff must actually experience well-founded apprehension of that contact. Mere offensive contact without the requisite intent does not create liability.
A donative transfer is procured by duress when the wrongdoer threatens or performs a wrongful act that coerces the donor into making a transfer the donor would not otherwise have made.
Police may enter without a warrant if they reasonably believe evidence is being destroyed and did not create the exigency by an actual or threatened Fourth Amendment violation.
…under safe clinical conditions, that she was unable to get a legal abortion in Texas because her life did not appear to be threatened by the continuation of her pregnancy, and that she could not afford to travel to another jurisdiction to secure a legal abortion. She sought a declaratory judgment that the Texas abortion…