Duress is the defence a person raises when they were compelled to commit a crime under threat — when extreme pressure left them no real choice. As a solicitor, you'll need to recognise quickly whether a client's situation has any chance of meeting its demands, because duress is a complete defence: succeed, and the defendant walks free. But it is tightly fenced in — unavailable for the gravest offences and easily lost where a defendant had a way out.
This lesson takes you through the defence from the ground up, building the full picture you need to apply it to real facts.
- The Defence and Its Limits — what duress is, the complete acquittal it brings, the offences it can never excuse, and who must prove what.
- The Two-Stage Test — the single two-stage test that governs both forms of duress.
- Nature of the Threat — what kind of threat qualifies, and who it must be aimed at.
- Immediacy, Causation and Alternatives — why the threat must be live, linked to the crime, and inescapable.
- The Objective Stage and Relevant Characteristics — the reasonable-firmness standard and which of the defendant's traits count.
- Voluntary Association and Distinctions — when mixing with criminals bars the defence, and how duress relates to its neighbours.