[Mom of 2]

State - Illinois

Is an initialled piece of paper a legal and binding document if it was signed under duress? It was not notarized or submitted through the court system.

[Fr_Chuck]

1. Depends on what the paper was, for example a bill for sale for a house no.

2. a contract does not have to be notarized or sent to the court to be binding. Even a verbal agreement, I will sell you a car for... dollars, and you say yes, and give them a deposit, that is a legal binding contract, harder to prove but legal.

3. The issue of duress, it depends on what you are calling duress, did they have a gun pointed at your child or at you, or was it just a pushy sales person?

So you have to explain what type of document, what type of duress.