Do you come with clean hands?

Equity is not easy to understand but when you seek relief because you have been honestly wronged and other legal actions are impossible then equitable relief may be the solution. A major distinction between equitable relief and Common Law remedies is their range and flexibility. It is often asked "what is equity?" and "how does it apply to my case".

The principal form of common law relief is an award of monetary damages, but equity has developed remedies that produce justice in situations in which money alone will not suffice. These include specific performance and injunctions that compel a party to act or to stop acting in a particular way. Equity will rescind or rectify contracts, grant Declarations, Order Accounts and the delivery up of documents. Equity is constantly adapting and developing to meet new challenges - particularly in the modern probate environment and especially when applications involve real estate / property.

It useful to understand the following list. It encompasses the twelve maxims most commonly invoked by applicants in equity. These matters are normally resolved in the Supreme Court. Although these are generalised principles underpinning the law and are not strictly enforced, they do help you to conceive the main elements of this area of law:

• He who comes into equity must come with clean hands;
• Equity looks on as done that which ought to be done;
• Equity will not suffer a wrong to be without a remedy;
• He who seeks equity must do equity;
• Equity is equality;
• Equity looks to the intent, rather than to the form;
• Equity follows the law;
• Where the equities are equal, the law prevails;
• Equity assists the diligent, not the tardy;
• Equity will not allow a statute to be used as an instrument of fraud:
• Equity imputes an intention to fulfil an obligation; and
• Equity acts in personam.

Therefore equitable remedies based as they are on concepts such as fairness and the dictat fiat justicia (“let right be done”) remain a valuable source of assistance because they allow the Court to take action in different circumstances with great flexibility and allow for solutions in a way that the more narrow Common Law will not.