What is undue influence in simple terms?

Asked by: Raina Pollich DDS  |  Last update: June 27, 2025
Score: 4.9/5 (49 votes)

Undue influence occurs when an individual is able to persuade another's decisions due to the relationship between the two parties. Often, one of the parties is in a position of power over the other due to elevated status, higher education, or emotional ties.

What is undue influence in simple words?

1. [16. Undue influence defined. -- (1) A contract is said to be induced by "undue influence" where the relations subsisting between the parties are such that one of the parties is in a position to dominate the will of the other and uses that position to obtain an unfair advantage over the other.

What is an example of undue influence in real life?

Real Life Examples

A classic example of this is when a caretaker influences an elderly person in the preparation of a new will. The undue influencer may control access by isolating them from interacting with friends and family.

What are the three elements of undue influence?

When the courts respond to allegations of undue influence, they usually look at three specific standards to determine whether the lawsuit has any merit.
  • A vulnerable testator. ...
  • Someone in a position to abuse their authority. ...
  • Terms that benefit the person exerting influence.

What is undue influence generally considered to be?

Undue influence is the misuse of one's role and power to exploit the trust, dependence, and fear of another to deceptively gain control over that person's decision in a particular matter.

What Is Undue Influence ? Part 1

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What are 4 What are the requirements of undue influence?

What Are the 4 Elements of Undue Influence?
  • A victim places trust in a party who uses a position of authority to take unfair advantage of the victim.
  • One person takes advantage of another person's “weakness of mind”
  • One person takes an unjust and unfair advantage of another person's needs or troubles.

How do you identify undue influence?

Identifying signs of serious undue influence is important for protecting the integrity of estate planning.
  1. Isolation from trusted advisors. ...
  2. Rapid changes in documents. ...
  3. Unusual beneficiary designations. ...
  4. Emotional manipulation and control. ...
  5. Testator's mental state. ...
  6. Unexplained discrepancies. ...
  7. Disregard for legal formalities.

What are the three 3 things must the victim prove when claiming undue influence?

The presence of things like vulnerability, apparent authority, and actions and tactics being used before or surrounding the Trust signing is sufficient to prove undue influence was present at the time of signing the contested Trust.

Which is not an example of undue influence?

For example, married couples have a great amount of influence over one another, and so this influence, while strong, is not considered “undue” under the law.

Are undue influence cases hard to win?

In California, proving undue influence is a difficult task for attorneys, especially where a particular family member is the apparent authority figure. Courts believe that individuals have sufficient mental capacity to execute their wishes.

How is undue influence proven?

While undue influence can be proven in some cases with direct evidence, most undue influence cases rely on circumstantial evidence, which means that the evidence you present should be highly compelling and there should be lots of it.

What is the most common form of coercion?

Physical. Physical coercion is the most commonly considered form of coercion, where the content of the conditional threat is the use of force against a victim, their relatives or property.

What is 7 undue influence?

Undue influence exists where one person wrongfully exercises control over another so as to substitute that person's will for the will of the other.

What is an example of actual undue influence?

An example of this is Morley v Loughnan (1893) (HC) in which a vulnerable man who had given over £140,000 to the Close Sect of Plymouth Brethren before he died. He was found to have done so because of actual undue influence exerted by a sect leader, Loughnan, who used his position to influence the claimant.

How do you prove signing under duress?

When a person wants to rescind a contract entered into earlier on the basis that it was made under duress, he needs to prove that a threat to harm was made by the other party and that the threat was the reason that he entered into the contract.

What is undue in simple words?

adjective. unwarranted; excessive: undue haste. inappropriate; unjustifiable; improper: undue influence.

What are the 3 elements of undue influence?

What are the elements of undue influence?
  • Vulnerability of the victim. For undue influence to apply, you must prove that the victim was excessively vulnerable. ...
  • Influencer's authority. ...
  • Overt tactics. ...
  • Inequitable results.

What is an example of undue influence in a family?

That undue influence could take the form of a threat to stop visiting the parent, to restrict the parent from seeing grandchildren, to stop providing care to the parent, including failing to provide essential help like food, water, bathing, etc., all in an effort to manipulate a benefit for the abuse, like money or the ...

What is vindictive damage?

They are also sometimes called “exemplary damages” or “vindictive damages” because they are meant to make an example of the defendant, deter others from engaging in the same conduct, and vindicate society's injury in the harm that was done.

How to win a case against undue influence?

To prove undue influence, demonstrate these four elements:
  1. The victim's vulnerability.
  2. The wrongdoer's apparent authority.
  3. The specific tactics and actions exerting influence.
  4. Evidence of the resultant change in the victim's decisions due to the influence.

What are the four elements required to prove duress?

Elements of Duress
  • Contract Was Signed Under Serious Threat of Unlawful Action. ...
  • Victim Would Not Have Signed Contract if Threat Did Not Exist. ...
  • No Reasonable Alternatives Existed for the Victim Besides Signing Contract. ...
  • Victim Became Involved in Situation Through No Fault of Their Own. ...
  • The Vulnerability of Victim.

How to disprove undue influence?

If proof exists that the testator was able to live on his or her own until his/her death, this can go far towards disproving a claim of undue influence.

Why is undue influence difficult to prove?

That said, undue influence can be difficult to prove without the help of a skilled attorney, even in instances where it's obvious undue influence was behind a person's decisions. This is because undue influence tends to be subtle and perpetrated behind closed doors.

Can dementia cause undue influence?

According to Sanford Finkel, MD, a geriatric psychiatrist with 34 years' experience as an expert in will contests, “Dementia, as well as delirium, can make a person especially vulnerable to 'undue influence'—excessive or inappropriate manipulation where someone uses deception to gain assets without a person's true ...

How do you determine under influence?

These observations often begin with the initial traffic stop and continue through the interaction with the driver.
  1. Erratic Driving Behavior. ...
  2. Physical Signs of Impairment. ...
  3. Behavior and Speech. ...
  4. Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. ...
  5. Breath Tests. ...
  6. Blood Tests. ...
  7. Urine Tests. ...
  8. Questioning the Test Conditions.