The unclean hands doctrine in law allows courts to deny compensation to plaintiffs in cases where the plaintiff is proven

n to have had some dishonest dealing with the transaction before the court. For example, in r nonpayment of on the unclean oan-origination a foreclosure case where a lender brings a homeowner to court fo a mortgage, the court might rule in favor of the homeowner based hands doctrine if the lender deceived the defendant during the l process.

In essence, the doctrine allows defendants to show that the plaintiff is to some degree at fault and therefore not entitled to whatever compensation he or she r equests. It is important to note that in Modesto, California (and in many other jurisdictions), the unclean hands doctrine applies only to matters directly rela ted to the matter before the court. In other words, a borrower in foreclosure mu st be able to demonstrate that his or her lender acted deceptively directly in r elationship to the mortgage in question in order to use the unclean hands princi ple as a defense. About Andrew Katakis Andrew Katakis is President of Modesto, California-based California Equity Manag ement Group. In 2009, Katakis won a court case regarding the foreclosure of a bo rrower by demonstrating that the borrower came to the transaction with unclean h ands.