Also known as: solicit · solicits · solicited · soliciting · solicitations · solicitee
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
4 senses
An inchoate offense consisting of urging, counseling, or commanding another person to commit a felony or breach of the peace, performed with the specific intent that the solicited person commit the crime. The offense is complete upon the solicitation itself. Factual impossibility supplies no defense.
An inchoate offense consisting of urging, counseling, or commanding another person to commit a felony or breach of the peace, performed with the specific intent that the solicited person commit the crime. The offense is complete upon the solicitation itself. Factual impossibility supplies no defense.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A lawyer's prohibited request for a substantial gift from a client, including a testamentary gift, or for professional employment by live person-to-person contact when pecuniary gain is a significant motive.
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A shareholder request for proxies or consents in a director election.
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A deliberate contact with a forum state that can support specific personal jurisdiction when the suit arises from that contact.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A lawyer's prohibited request for a substantial gift from a client, including a testamentary gift, or for professional employment by live person-to-person contact when pecuniary gain is a significant motive.
A shareholder request for proxies or consents in a director election.
A deliberate contact with a forum state that can support specific personal jurisdiction when the suit arises from that contact.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Skylar Sullivan urged Sebastian Santos to break into a warehouse and steal electronics. Santos completed the burglary. The completed felony absorbed the preliminary solicitation, so the prosecution charged only the burglary as a felony.
Simone Sanders asked Sofia Stern to falsify invoices to help Sanders evade taxes. Sanders acted with the purpose of facilitating the offense. The request alone satisfied the solicitation element for accomplice liability even though Stern never acted.
Sierra Solutions' manager urged an employee to set fire to a competitor's warehouse. The manager acted with specific intent that the felony occur. The solicitation constituted a misdemeanor even though the employee never attempted the act.
No. The solicitor's culpability is measured by the circumstances the solicitor believed to exist. The offense is complete once the solicitation occurs regardless of whether the solicited crime could actually be accomplished.
Supporting sources
At common law the inchoate offenses of solicitation, attempt, and conspiracy merged into the completed felony. The prosecution therefore charges only the completed crime once the principal offense has been carried out.
Supporting sources
The defendant must incite, counsel, advise, induce, urge, or command another person to commit a crime. Mere general approval or agreement with criminal conduct does not satisfy the requirement.
Supporting sources
No. Once the defendant has made the solicitation, subsequent withdrawal or renunciation ordinarily supplies no defense to the charge.
Supporting sources
Serena Soto drafted a will for client Sabrina Shah that left Soto a substantial bequest. Soto had no familial relationship with Shah. The drafting violated the prohibition on soliciting substantial gifts from clients.
No. A lawyer may not solicit any substantial gift from a client, including a testamentary gift, unless the lawyer or other recipient is related to the client within the defined familial or close relationship categories.
Supporting sources
Skyline Construction's bylaws required inclusion of shareholder-nominated directors in proxy materials whenever the corporation solicited proxies for board elections. A shareholder nominee therefore appeared on the corporation's proxy statement.
Summit Bank solicited and issued an insurance policy to a resident of the forum state. The policy later gave rise to a coverage dispute. The single deliberate contact supported specific personal jurisdiction over the bank.
…by some as an invitation. In short, the supposedly clear-cut distinction between discussion, laudation, general advocacy, and solicitation puts the speaker in these circumstances wholly at the mercy of the varied understanding of his hearers and consequently of whatever inference may be drawn as to his intent and…