“Unclean hands” is a legal concept that affects parties to a dispute, where those who have acted unlawfully may not be entitled to what they would normally get. This occurs most often in civil cases, where fraudulent actions can void the right to damages. The person initiating the case must prove their hands are clean, and judges may drop a case if the person suing did not act legally.
“Unclean hands” is a legal concept that affects the behavior of people who are parties to the dispute. In essence, when a person or entity has their hands dirty, their actions relating to the matters of the lawsuit have been criminal or unlawful in any way, and as a result, they are not entitled to what they would normally get even if a case otherwise it has merit. A similar concept may exist in criminal cases, where prosecutors who commit illegal acts to obtain evidence may not be able to successfully prosecute their cases because all of this evidence would be inadmissible; it is not quite the same from a legal point of view. Most often, the issue of dirty or clean hands occurs in civil cases where one party is suing another for some form of legal redress.
While not all jurisdictions may consider the question of whether someone who files a lawsuit has clean hands, many of them do. It should be noted that it is the person initiating the case who has to prove that his/her hands are clean, if the matter is raised by the opposing party(ies). When it can be clearly demonstrated that someone or an entity has unclean hands, this gives judges certain rights. In many cases, they may be able to drop a case because the person suing did not act legally.
There are several ways that someone or several people could get their hands dirty. The most common is that they have committed some form of fraudulent action. For example, they may have fraudulently obtained a contract with someone and are now suing that person to collect money they believe is owed to them. Under these circumstances, the fact that the company has not acted cleanly and respectably is frequent enough to void their right to any money.
There are examples of dirty hands in many cases between ex-spouses on matters such as spousal and child support. The person asking to collect or present payments may only be eligible if you have been honest about financial matters and have not done anything to get your hands dirty. For example, paying someone to threaten a spouse who hasn’t made regular payments could void your right to collect payments. The issue may be slightly more complex on the issue of child support, as children cannot be held responsible for a parent’s bad deeds.
Ultimately, what the idea of unclean hands represents is that people must behave lawfully to maintain their rights to damages. When they fail to do so, they may find they no longer have an actionable case. People defending themselves in a lawsuit may very well be trying to establish that the other party has their hands dirty to escape payment. If the evidence is strong, such an escape may be possible.
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