Some people weaponize the legal system. Others take it a step further. They weaponize paper.
In the shadows of our courts, somewhere beneath the motions, the filings, and the performative outrage, exists an underreported tactic used by unethical lawyers and the clients who hide behind them: predatory agreements. These insidious documents are drafted not to inform, not to resolve, but to trap, silence, and corner someone already in distress.
It’s like watching someone drown and handing them a bucket of water instead of a life-preserver.
These agreements are not accidents or misunderstandings by any stretch of the imagination. They are deliberately constructed tools of coercion, crafted to look “official,” “legal,” and “binding,” even when they violate every ethical rule an attorney is supposed to uphold.
This is what predatory lawyering looks like in real life and why it deserves public exposure.
What Is a Predatory Agreement?
A predatory agreement is any written “contract,” “settlement,” “stipulation,” or “informal resolution” drafted by a lawyer that:
- forces a person to give up rights they shouldn’t have to surrender
- creates the ability to legally stalk and censor someone for life
- imposes obligations that are absurd, illegal, or one-sided
- punishes a victim for someone else’s misconduct
- protects the client while harming the target
- intimidates someone into silence
- attempts to rewrite reality to benefit the abuser
- contains language no ethically trained attorney would ever sign their name to
- threatens to put someone in jail where there is no legal right to do so
Predatory agreements are not about solving problems. They are solely about controlling people.
Often, they’re handed to a victim in a moment of fear, confusion, or distress, where an attorney believes they have inundated someone without the means to fight. The expectation is they can bully someone into signing something — anything — just to end the pressure.
That’s when an unethical attorney will strike, and it is nothing short of exploitation.
Why Unethical Lawyers Use Them
Individuals who do this, know exactly what they are doing. And they deploy a predatory agreement for three purposes:
1. Manufacturing Legitimacy
When the facts look bad for their client, unethical lawyers reach for paper. If reality doesn’t support their ill-concocted narrative, they try to contract a new one.
“Sign this, and now you are the problem.”
It’s clerical gaslighting through and through. And they’re hoping a desperate victim will take the bait.
2. Creating Leverage Through Fear
Predatory agreements prey on exhaustion and panic:
- “If you sign this, (maybe) the nightmare ends (but really I’ll just find new ways to control you and hold you under my thumb)”
- “If you don’t sign, things get worse.”
This is not at all negotiation. It is coercion; an illusion of choice where there never was one.
3. Building a Fake Record
Once signed, even under significant duress, the lawyer can wave the agreement around like:
- proof
- confession
- compliance
- settlement
- justification
The goal is clear: rewrite the timeline, blame the victim, and sanitize the abuser’s behavior. It is psychological warfare wrapped in legal formatting.
Multiple readers from clutch have sent in documents where West Michigan divorce lawyers made promises to release victims of fraudulent criminal charges and investigations where they had no ability to do so. In one particularly horrific case, one person is now sitting in prison because the other side never made good on their promises to drop the false and retaliatory claims. The attorneys involved are shockingly still allowed to practice law.
The Red Flags of Predatory Agreements
All of this probably gives you good reason to be extra cautious. If you ever receive a document that includes any of the following, you are dealing with a predatory act:
- demands that you admit wrongdoing you didn’t commit
- infringes upon your constitutional rights
- clauses that erase harassment or abuse
- conditions that force you to censor yourself or stop working entirely
- threats hidden within “friendly” language
- demands that you surrender rights protected by law
- lopsided terms that give the lawyer’s client everything and you nothing
- language designed to confuse, overwhelm, or terrify
- pressure to sign quickly before you can review or think
- statements that attempt to rewrite the factual record
A legitimate lawyer would never do this, but a desperate or unethical one absolutely will. If you are tight on funds, consider a monthly legal subscription service that includes document review, so they can figure out what the nefarious party is trying to accomplish and craft a plan forward.
Why Courts Are Starting to Take Notice
Predatory agreements rely on one thing: secrecy. But when targets push back, document the abuse, and expose these coercive tactics, a pattern quickly emerges:
- lawyers using agreements to intimidate and harm opposing parties
- agreements containing blatantly unethical terms
- victims reporting that they felt threatened or cornered
- agreements being used as weapons in other filings
- attempts to silence witnesses, survivors, or critics
Judges do not like being tricked. And they really do not like seeing lawyers misuse their profession and the courtroom as a tool of harassment.
Sunlight is the most effective disinfectant and predatory agreements crumble under scrutiny.
Why Predatory Agreements Are an Act of Legal Abuse
When a lawyer drafts a document intended to scare, isolate, harm, and/or mislead:
- it violates professional ethics
- it exploits the inherent power imbalance
- it harms the integrity of the legal system
- it retraumatizes people already in crisis
- it weaponizes knowledge against someone who doesn’t have it
This is not “lawyering.” It is legal abuse, plain and simple. And if anything, it needs to be called out.
How to Protect Yourself
If someone believes they have backed you into a corner, subsequently hands you a document, and something in your gut feels wrong, remember:
1. You are allowed to say, “No.”
You do not owe anyone your signature. Ever.
2. You are allowed to ask for time.
Pressure to sign immediately is the biggest red flag of all.
3. You are allowed to contact an attorney.
Predatory agreements lose power the second a real lawyer looks at them. Again, services like LegalShield can help take the edge off of the costs and offer some peace of mind.
4. You are allowed to document everything.
Receipts matter. Paper trails save lives. Judges do care. They don’t want their courtrooms being seen as hubs of corruption.
5. You are allowed to expose unethical behavior.
Shame grows in silence. Accountability grows in sunlight.
Support Legislation that Can Change The Game
Michigan is one of 12 states that do not have anti-SLAPP suits. Find out more about how you can support legislation that changes the game on this abusive practice.
The Profession Should Be Better Than This
It probably goes without saying, but I do not have a ton of faith in the legal profession. I believe actors in the system are usually looking to take advantage of people and get one over on others for their own benefit. And that’s a huge problem.
Attorneys hold immense power, not just legal power, but emotional, psychological, and financial power over the people they interact with. The problem is this “self-policing” profession means that foxes are watching the henhouse. And though the Attorney Grievance Commission is allegedly watching, in Michigan this enforcement body is largely toothless and will not act unless there is a problem with an attorney’s trust account. Sadly, victims are on their own.
So when a lawyer uses that disproportionate power to manipulate someone into signing a document that harms them, they are not just failing their profession, they are not showing the restraint that is supposed to be baked into the profession. And they’re betraying the foundation of justice itself.
Predatory agreements are never “mistakes.” They are intentional acts of control. And it’s time people stop falling for them and start calling them what they are.
