Duress

Best Duress Lawyers

Our lawyers appear in Courts throughout Australia every day. We have won many a case based on arguing defences such as duress.

Contact us now to speak to an accredited specialist in criminal law who can quickly analyse your case and begin preparing a duress defence.

What is Duress?

Duress is a legal concept which refers to a person being forced into committing a crime against their will.

Duress is a full defence to a number of criminal offences. However, it is not a defence to a charge of murder or manslaughter.

How Can You Prove Duress?

In order to successfully argue duress, there are a number of criteria which must be satisfied:

1. You genuinely believed that if you did not commit the crime, yourself or another person would be killed or seriously injured.

You will have to show some evidence that a threat was made. You can give evidence in Court as to the threat, however, the more evidence you have of it, the more likely it is that the Court will believe you.

If the threat can be produced in Court (eg. text messages, emails or recorded phone conversations) or there are witnesses to the threat, this will bolster your case.

You will also need to prove that you genuinely believed the threat was real. The threat does not have to be explicit – it can be implied. There is also no need to prove that the threat could be carried out.

2. The threat would have driven a reasonable person to act as you did

The Court will consider whether the threat would have caused an ordinary person of your gender and maturity to have committed the crime if they were in the same circumstances and had the same knowledge as you.

3. Could you have escaped without damage to yourself or another person?

This is usually concerned with whether you had an opportunity to contact police. If you did, then it is unlikely that you will be found to have been acting under duress.

Examples of Duress?

Some examples of duress include:

• Being held against your will and being forced to commit or assist in a fraud;
• Being sent a picture or video of a family member who has been kidnapped and told to immediately commit a crime (ie. there is no opportunity to alert Police).

Duress is a difficult defence to raise as there will usually be an opportunity to contact Police.

If you have been charged with an offence and believe that you were under duress, contact us now to speak to Australia’s best criminal lawyers.