From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
criminal maintenance
n 1: the unauthorized interference in a legal action by a person
having no interest in it (as by helping one party with
money or otherwise to continue the action) so as to
obstruct justice or promote unnecessary litigation or
unsettle the peace of the community; "unlike champerty,
criminal maintenance does not necessarily involve personal
profit" [syn: maintenance, criminal maintenance]