constructive force

noun

constructive force

noun

Law Action on the part of one party which will be treated by a court as equivalent to the use of force in determining whether that party has acted improperly with respect to another.

A civilian who impersonates a police officer in order to convince a debtor to turn over physical possession of collateral owed to a creditor has used constructive force to acquire the collateral.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.