Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Is this extortion?

thanks for your question. from the facts given so far, your stepson's biological mother is DEFINITELY "out of line" if she is conditioning release of the trust funds on an agreement stating your son must purchase her van. as you stated, this appears to be criminal extortion, among other tortious causes of action arising from the same core of operative facts that you have highlighted for me, as well as trying to bind your son to an unenforceable contract due to the illegality of what she is trying to do to her own son regarding purchase of this van. my best advice to you would be to have your stepson retain an attorney as soon as possible to prevent this extortion from occurring and getting his trust payments executed as soon as possible. if you would like further assistance and/or aggressive representation in this matter, feel free to email me directly with how you and/or your stepson would like to proceed. once again, thank you for your question and we hope to help you get justice asap in this unfortunate matter.

Re: Is this extortion?

The boy has no obligation to give her any money. If you want help in convincing her she is putting herself at risk by making such demands, call me to discuss his rights and remedies. We should be able to get his payment without substantial expense or effort.

Re: Is this extortion?

The mother's conduct does not meet the legal definition of extortion but that doesn't make it right. The money clearly belongs to your stepson. Since he was a minor at the time of the settlement, court approval must have been obtained.

Your stepson can do a couple of things to locate the money. He could contact the attorney who represented him and ask where the money is. If the attorney cannot be found or he is reluctant to contact that attorney for whatever reason, he can go to the courthouse himself and ask to see the file. There should be a receipt there for the deposit of the funds which will show which bank has the money. Since he is now 18, he can just walk into that bank and withdraw it. This assumes that money was deposited in a blocked account.

The other possiblility is that this is a structured settlement providing for disbursement from the defendant or its insurance company at specified intervals. If this is the situation, the court file will reflect who is responsible for payment and then it's just a matter of contacting that source and getting it sent to him. To avoid problems with mom, he should direct that the funds be delivered somewhere other than his mother's address.