Written by Jonathan Tatner.
The doctrine of “laches” refers to an argument and defense to stop a claim being made if it can be shown that the claimant can be deemed to have “slept on their rights,” basically taking far too long after the fact to bring the claim, thus forfeiting their rights. Laches is akin to a limitations argument, but not based on a specific statute or specific period of time, hence an equitable doctrine.
