The Difference Between Proposing A Settlement And Extortion

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - When does an attempt to settle a case end and extortion begin?

After another woman came forward to claim that she'd been victimized by until-recently beloved actor Bill Cosby, Cosby's legal team came out swinging, claiming that before suing, the woman had tried to extort him by threatening to sue if he didn't pay up. But it happens all the time that a person who believes she has a claim attempts to settle it before going through the expense of litigation.

How and when does that offer to settle the claim before filing turn in to extortion? It's often a very fine line.

Extortion occurs when a person tries to get money often by threatening to reveal information about a person that would harm his reputation. To determine if someone's threat to file a lawsuit if the would-be defendant doesn't settle is extortion, you'd look at the facts of the case to see if there is a plausible basis for the legal claims or whether the threatened lawsuit is meant to scare a person into paying money to prevent a case that would never fly and that was never really going to get filed.

In Cosby's case, this lawsuit was based on an incident that allegedly happened forty years ago so it is highly unlikely that the alleged victim's suit will win the day. But, whether Cosby will be tried in the court of public opinion is another matter entirely.

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