Offsetting Contempts

For some reasons, many of the cases I get have what I call offsetting contempt issues.   This is where each party is in contempt for one item or another.  Many times I see cases where one party has withheld visitation due to the other party not paying child support.  For some reason, there seems to be a lot of people who believe that if child support is not paid, visitation does not have to be given.  All this really does is render both parties in contempt and typically ensure that neither party gets an award of attorney's fees. I have seen many chancellors do this and apply the "clean hands doctrine" and they will not award anyone attorney's fees before telling each party to abide by the court order.