Topic summary
Unclean hands
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Clean hands doctrine.
Description
The party which acted dishonourably is said to have "unclean hands". Claiming "unclean hands" is normally something a defendant does, but it is possible for the plaintiff to do this, too. In some areas, the court adjudicating the case may consider this doctrine even if no one argued it. However, if this is not the case, at least in US legal tradition, it is generally required that such defence be raised at trial.