QUESTION
Is is illegal to threaten to withhold information from another person?
Asked on Aug 04th, 2013 on Civil Litigation - Illinois
More details to this question:
My girlfriend owes money to her ex-boyfriend. He intends to serve her papers to summon her to court to sue for the money, but he needed her address in order to do that. A few months ago, she signed a notarized letter stating exactly how much she owed him. He did not allow her to take a copy of this letter when she signed it. When she asked him to provide her with a copy for her own records, he refused to do so unless she provided him with her address. This seems to border on extortion (intimidation in Illinois), but I've read the Illinois Criminal Code and I don't quite think this fully counts as intimidation. Is there any other type of law that was broken by him performing this action?
1 ANSWER
If the eboyfriend sued your girlfriend for the money she owes him, she would certainly be entitled to get a copy of the letter in discovery in that action. Absent that, however, I know of no statute which gives your girlfriend a right to a copy of the letter, although it is possible that there is an Illinois statute of which I am unaware, as I do not practice in Illinois. Assuming, however, that the ex-boyfriend had a right to refuse to give your girlfriend a copy of the letter, he is also within his rights in asking for consideration (quid pro quo) in exchange for waiving that right. Hindsight is 20-20, but your girlfriend shoudl have made a copy of the letter when she signed it.
Answered on Aug 05th, 2013 at 2:59 PM