Legal Definitions - deforce

The term "deforce" refers to the act of unlawfully keeping someone from their rightful property or money, often through the use of force, intimidation, or wrongful detention. It essentially means to wrongfully dispossess or withhold something from its true owner or a creditor.

• Example 1: Preventing Access to Land

  Imagine a situation where a property owner discovers that a neighbor has extended their fence several feet onto the owner's land, claiming that portion as their own. When the true owner attempts to remove the fence or access their property, the neighbor physically blocks them and threatens legal action, effectively preventing the owner from using their own land.

  This illustrates "deforce" because the neighbor is forcibly and unlawfully keeping the true owner from possessing and using a part of their rightful land.

• Example 2: Withholding Owed Money

  Consider a freelance web developer who completes a website project for a client according to their contract. Despite the work being delivered and approved, the client refuses to pay the final invoice, ignores all communication attempts, and explicitly states they will not release the funds, effectively holding the payment hostage without legal justification.

  Here, the client is "deforcing" the web developer by unjustly and forcibly detaining the money that is rightfully owed for the services rendered.

• Example 3: Forcibly Ousting from Property

  A small business leases a commercial office space. At the end of the lease term, before the business has fully moved out or proper eviction procedures have been completed, the landlord changes the locks, removes the tenant's remaining equipment, and physically prevents the business owner from re-entering the premises.

  This demonstrates "deforce" because the landlord is forcibly ousting the business owner from their rightful possession of the commercial unit and their property within it, without following due legal process.