Avoid Conflating Actions

Two wrongs do not make a right!

Beware of falling into the all-too-common conflation of issues, subconsciously imagining that the accusation against you would be resolved by pointing out something the accuser did wrong.

Mentally keep a good clean separation between the issues. If someone is dragging you into the quicksands of court, accusing you of doing X and Y, then you need to deal with those accusations properly, even if you also find the need to hold your accuser accountable for Z; that's separate.

Generally, we suggest that in a criminal matter, if you have something hanging over your head, you should deal with that first, before trying to hold anyone else accountable for their wrongdoing.

However, in a civil matter, passing the buck via a counter-claim or a cross-claim (or multiple) may very well be a perfectly appropriate part of your answer to the original claim. Also, there may be a fitting affirmative defense such as "unclean hands" or "estoppel".

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for anyone who was wondering, i'll finish what i was saying about distinguishing: many times when we are accused of something, we tend to notice all the wrongdoing of the accuser, and somehow get distracted by that, imagining (even if only subconsciously) that by highlighting all of the accuser's wrongdoing, we won't have to deal with the accusation.

false. that won't do.

make an effort