Every year in Ottawa and in cities and towns across Eastern Ontario, people are falsely imprisoned. False imprisonment is the detention of a person without legal justification or consent. Being a victim of false imprisonment doesn’t require actual physical force or actually being locked in a prison.
If you did not commit a crime but are detained against your will without lawful justification, verbally or by force, you may have been falsely imprisoned.
The most common form of false imprisonment we see is when a store manager or store/mall security suspect you have stolen something and you are detained. This may be considered imprisonment. Other scenarios not commonly associated with “imprisonment” could include the driver of a car proceeding at such a speed as to prevent a passenger from exiting, or being cast adrift in a boat.
The compensation you receive can depend on factors such as whether physical force was used, whether you were injured, the length of the containment, the treatment you received and whether there has been any damage to your reputation.
If you believe you have been the victim of a false imprisonment, contact us to discuss whether you are entitled to compensation.
