Under duress

Duress means that you are being forced to participate in some illegal activity against your will.

When you are signing a parking ticket or a disciplinary document at work you are only signing to acknowledge receipt of the document. You aren't signing as a statment that you agree or disagree with anything written on it and accepting such a document from another person certianly isn't illegal so claiming that you are sigining it under duress is a stretch.

Now if a cop showed up at your door and had a statement saying that you witnessed a crime taking place that you were unaware of and they threatened that you had to sign it or they'd do something to cause you problems you'd be under true duress. They'd be coercing you to sign a false statement and sigining a false statement is illegal.

Even if you signed something under duress and marked the document as such you'd propabably be questioned to determine if there was any actual coercion involved.

When you sign a traffic ticket you are agreeing to appear in court to either pay or contest the ticket. Writing "UD" will not "invalidate" your signature, and not signing might earn you a trip downtown.

Not signing
I am not sure about the UD before the signature, but that is very intresting. However, I will say that it would be pointless to try to invalidate your signature on a traffic citation. The citation is not an admission of guilt. It is merely a promise to do one of the three options that you are presented with by the Deputy/Officer. Only one time have I seen someone refuse to sign the citation, and after several warnings they were handcuffed and taked "one adult male 10-15, 10-51 CJ (county jail)." Therefore, it is always good to sign first and fight later. However we did have an illegal alien, Mexican to be exact, I wrote him out 5 tickets and he refused to sign them all. He threw them all up in the air and proceeded to tell me he wouldn't sign any of them. All he wanted was some more beer (after a DUI arrest), and some chicken and rice. I will admit that he was a funny character. Had we not of already been inside of the jail giving him a breath test, he would of went for not signing the tickets.

UD - my 2cents
I don't believe putting UD will do anything for you unless you are really persuasive in court. As far as not signing it thats an automatic trip to jail. i do remember once in college i was in a group where we would talk about similar subject and in the past i was told you would sign your name, and then put some number down, and the numbers were like a code that reflect the law of the state, county, federal i dunno, but it would act as that for being under duress. as for why you would want an ticket to be sign as such, maybe you don't believe you were going so fast, and you strongly believe it almost enough to go to jail, but who wants to go to jail and you have to sign the ticket then that in my opinion would be UD. If their was such a thing my belief is only some lawyers and politicians would use it the latter prolly for their families.

Putting "UD" after your signature would typically be interpreted as meaning that your last name is "Ud." It also might indicate that the signer is "using drugs" or "unbelievably dumb." It does not, however, mean that the document is signed "under duress," and placing "UD" after one's signature would have no legal effect whatsoever.

The last time I went to traffic court, two people ahead of me had their speeding tickets quickly dismissed because the signature on the ticket did not match their own signature, as shown on their license.

They just claimed someone stole their drivers license and got the tickets using the false ID. Case dismissed, in less than three minutes.

Must be Chicago.

Hey, he's baaaaaaack.
Nice to see ya', Tmaya.
(I know we disagree on nearly everything, but still.)

Hiya, Osso. Time does not permit me the luxury of being here as often or as long as I would like ... at least for the time being. Good to see you too.

(We don't agree on much? I hadn't noticed. :wink:)

Do you get a lot of tickets? I don't know about other states since I have only lived in one but if you don't sign that ticket you will go to jail.
I have never been stopped. I hope never to be stopped. I never heard that putting UD besides your signature does anything.

Today my supervisor told me if I don't sign her documents by thursday, she's going to suspend me for a day. And if I still refuse to sign I will be terminated. Is that duress?

That would depend on what the documents are and why you are being asked to sign them.

The last time i got pulled over i put "under duress" spelt the whole thing out before i signed the ticket right above my signature. when i got to court they looked at there copy of the ticket and with little argument on my side dismissed the ticket.

Hello Everyone! This one is a good one for everyone. I would really appreciate an answer about this one. A friend of mine was told, back in 1996 to sign a confession of judgment. He stated to his lawyer that he was not going to do it. His lawyer told him that if he did not that the prosecuting party would put him in prison. He adamantly told his lawyer that he was not guilty of anything and his lawyer said the same thing so he signed the documents.

Any advice would be extremely helpful. LOL.

Ref: "Changeling" by Clint Eastwood. True story. Corrupt authority on psych ward tells her she can go home tomorrow if she signs a statement confessing she was wrong, they are right, and absolving LAPD of any wrongdoing. She courageously refuses to sign and as a result is tortured. I was amazed at this movie because a very similar thing was done to me when I left my abusive husband, corrupt authority on husband's false charges, took me to a nuthouse OUT OF a battered women's shelter at midnight and I was illegally interrogated about my thoughts. I got to go back to the shelter at about one a.m. Police broke the law, the cop TOLD me in front of shelter staff "I spoke to your husband, Mrs. M., he says YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN VIOLENT, but I have a court order, I have to take you in". I did not know the mental health act, I obeyed the cop. He was BREAKING THE LAW. Back to "Changeling", could she have just got out of there by signing the damned thing and her signature be invalidated due to being under duress? Or would it hold up in court? Basically, a signature obtained by threats of torture or other human rights violation on a captive person -- is that not "under duress"? What does the military, for example, tell personnel if they are captured? Are any statements they make legally invalidated under the circumstances??

PS: Think about it: If someone is making you sign something seriously harmful (parking tickets? come on! get SERIOUS!), and you try to add any notation such as "UD", they're just going to get more abusive with you! They're going to ask what the hell is this? You CAN'T fool around with your signature when some corrupt control freak is coercing you. Your situation will get drastically worse.

The signature is valid but signing "under duress" or "under protest" is beneficial for future reference like in case of litigation involving the document you were told to sign. Like one time we were in a restaurant and as we were paying the bill, we noticed other charges therein. For the sake of leaving we paid but we signed the receipt and attached paid under protest. should we decide to sue the restaurant, we could submit the receipt as evidence.

It does not mean an activity was ILLEGAL AT ALL... you bonehead. It merely indicates you were forced, stressed, or pressured into doing it... that in another circumstance, under clear thought and will... you would not have.

(don't play web lawyer if you lack the training!)

You realize you're commenting on a post made nearly 5 years ago, right?

Do you have "web lawyer" training, bigler?