Were you arrested without grounds and held against your will by the police without justification? Held against your will by law enforcement? You might have a false imprisonment case on your hands.
Even if you weren't thrown in a jail cell, being confined unlawfully can be a scary and frustrating experience. But before you start picturing a courtroom showdown, there's a lot to understand.
This article will break down the legalities of false imprisonment, explain when you can sue, and what steps to take to fight for the justice you deserve. Learn how the law defines false imprisonment and what you can do if it happens to you.
What Is False Imprisonment?
False imprisonment, also called wrongful imprisonment or false arrest, generally means that someone is:
- Unlawfully restrained against their will
- By someone without legal authority, consent, or other justification
False imprisonment can be both a crime and a civil wrong, meaning that it could be the basis for a criminal prosecution or a civil lawsuit.
State criminal laws make false imprisonment illegal throughout the country. Many states have their own statutes about false imprisonment—see, for example, Georgia’s criminal code.
On top of that, the federal code also criminalizes the act. However, with these criminal laws, there is no “private right of action.” This means that an individual can’t sue someone under those laws or bring a criminal case against them. Only government prosecutors can bring criminal charges under these types of statutes.
Instead, individuals can file a civil case under tort law.
Civil Tort Claims
In civil law, a person claiming false imprisonment typically seeks to recover damages for the interference with their freedom of movement.
In this type of case, false imprisonment is classified as an intentional tort. This means that the person you are accusing of falsely imprisoning you had to have acted intentionally.
Tort law is not formally classified under a statute, but instead “common law,” meaning that it is created through a series of court decisions. Therefore, it can be tricky to navigate exactly what will satisfy the requirements to win a lawsuit for false imprisonment.
On top of that, state laws vary, and what’s sufficient in one state may not be in another. This is all very tricky to navigate, and so it’s best to consult with a legal professional in your area who would know the ins and outs of tort law in your state.
But if you want to better understand whether you have a civil claim for false imprisonment, let’s look at what you’d have to prove.
Proving False Imprisonment
False imprisonment laws vary from state to state. But generally, a plaintiff will have to prove the following elements to prove a claim:
- You were confined
- The defendant acted in a way that caused that confinement
- The defendant acted willfully, intending to cause your confinement (it can’t have been an accidental imprisonment)
- You were either aware of it happening to you, or you were harmed by it in some way
This means that if you slept through the whole ordeal and woke up unharmed and didn’t learn until after you were free that you were ever confined, then you probably don’t have a claim.
Physical Logistics
The physical area to which you’re confined has to be “bounded.” An area is only bounded if freedom of movement is limited in all directions. So, it’s not enough that you weren’t allowed to walk in a certain direction or enter a place that you had a right to go.
Even if there’s a way you could have escaped, but you didn’t know about it, that still counts. But if it’s obvious and easy to escape, then that doesn’t count as “bounded,” and you probably don’t have a claim. Additionally, if the only way to escape will result in the risk of physical harm to you, then the area is still considered “bounded.”
There's no minimum amount of time you have to be detained. The more important consideration is: Were you deprived of personal liberty? If so, even being detained for a short amount of time can be sufficient.
Imprisonment Without Physical Force
Of course, the unlawful restraint can happen through the use of physical force, but this isn’t usually required. Instead, false imprisonment often occurs through physical barriers, threats of force, or false claims of authority.
Even if someone doesn’t force you somewhere or manhandle you, you can still be unlawfully restrained by the use of a physical barrier, such as a locked door or locked car.
Threats of immediate physical force can be considered restraint. However, the threat to imprison you usually won’t qualify. In considering whether a threat counts as false imprisonment, courts will ask whether or not you had a justified fear of injury from the threat. Further, threatening to harm your family if you leave the area of confinement (even though you’re not physically restrained) counts as being “bounded.”
You can also be falsely imprisoned if the person who detained you didn’t have the legal authority to do so. An example would be detaining or arresting you without a warrant or probable cause.
Possible Defenses
Not every case of involuntary confinement is false imprisonment. In many cases, a defendant may have reasonable grounds to justify the imprisonment. Some common defenses to false imprisonment can include:
- Voluntary consent. Someone who consents to confinement, without duress, coercion, or fraud, may not later claim false imprisonment.
- Police privilege. Police officers have the right to detain someone if they have probable cause to believe they have committed a crime. So long as the detention is reasonable, you may not be able to sue the police for false imprisonment even though you are innocent of a crime. Again, though, there is no police privilege if there is no warrant or an illegal warrant.
- Shopkeeper's privilege. This is a legal doctrine that says that a shopkeeper who reasonably believes that someone is shoplifting or is attempting to steal something from them may detain the plaintiff in a reasonable manner for a reasonable amount of time to investigate. This isn’t true everywhere, but many states protect merchants from false imprisonment claims by allowing them to detain patrons for a brief period of time in this situation.
If you have a question about a possible false imprisonment claim, you may want to talk to a personal injury attorney. They can walk you through your options and help you throughout the process. Many offer free case evaluations where you can walk through the details of your claim and learn what to expect from a civil court case.
Related Resources:
- Can I Sue Someone for Recording Me Without My Permission? (FindLaw's Enforcing Your Civil Rights Guide)
- Can I Sue for Being Kicked Out of a Concert? (FindLaw's Guide to Filing a Lawsuit)
- Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (FindLaw's Accidents and Injuries Legal Guide)
