False imprisonment is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False imprisonment is a common-law felony and a tort. It applies to private as well as governmental detention. When it comes to public police, the proving of false imprisonment is sufficient to obtain a writ of habeas corpus.

Elements

The elements of the tort are:

• Intention to confine the other or a third person within boundaries fixed by the actor. Recklessness will suffice
• Total restraint: the claimant must have no reasonable way of escaping - Bird v Jones
• The person confined must be aware at the time of confinement of the state of that confinement or be harmed by it. - Parvi v. City of Kingston - N.Y. Ct. App. 1977 (41 N.Y.2d 553, 362 N.E.2d 960, 394 N.Y.S.2d 161)

Scenarios

The following are false imprisonment scenarios.

• The taking hostage of a bank's customers and employees by bank robbers.
• The detention of a customer by a business owner (e.g., hotel operator, apartment owner, credit card company) for the failure to pay a bill. However, there is something known as the "merchant's exception." A store operator may detain a suspected thief for a reasonable period of time to conduct an investigation of the facts or situation.
• Certain situations arising from controversial legislation, like California's Assembly Bill 1421, Laura's Law.

What false imprisonment is not

Not all detainments constitute false imprisonment, as to whether or not, it is based heavily on the context of the situation.