Judicial System: Implementation Guide

[Cyrus Raven]

Dear Eclipse Community, 

 

With the recent pop up of threads talking about the police and criminal meta on the server and advocating for some form of judicial system I thought I would attempt to outline some of the important key aspects to keep in mind if such a system were to be implemented. 

 

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer if you think some aspects need to be corrected or the wording needs to be changed then feel free to leave a comment! This guide is based on my recollection of how other servers have implemented a judicial system and several other suggestions posted on the forums (Any section that is taken from another player's suggestion will be highlighted in yellow.

 

 

 

 

Introducing the San Andreas Department of Justice (SADJ), a branch of government that interprets state and federal law and adjudicates disputes. The SADJ not only is in charge of adjudicating disputes between parties but is also in charge of providing the citizens of Los Santos with a public defender. 

 

Moreover, the SADJ also oversees and administers the bar examination, a test that all practicing lawyers are required to take before they are allowed to practice law in the city of Los Santos. 

 

The SADJ Hierarchy and Roles

Attorney General 

Deputy Attorney General 

Solicitor General

Chief Justice 

Deputy Chief Justice

Justices

Public Defender 

 

How will the SADJ play a role on the server ?

 

The role of the SADJ is as follows:

1. To prosecute and set up legal cases against individuals, groups or entities in Los Santos, alongside the Los Santos Police Department and the San Andreas State Department;
2. Adjudicate proceedings between two parties. Either for criminal or civil cases between two individual parties or against the government of Los Santos, including any government agencies (LSPD, SADOC, SASD, etc...);
3. Organize and provide a system of recourse for citizens of Los Santos through the assignment of public defenders if requested by the citizen.
4. Offer the bar examination to any citizen looking to become a Lawyer of Public Defender

 

How will this system work in practice ?

 

The SADJ will serve as an authoritative body that oversees enforcement agencies, holds accountable all government agencies and provides a legal defense system for all civilians. 

 

The following section is based on a post by Gabriel Brown 

 

Court Process: Criminal Law

 

A Police Officer may arrest in a similar manner as they can currently, however, if the suspect wishes to challenge the charges against him he may. It is then If a judge rules in favor of the plaintiff, the charge will be removed from their record and, if they spent time in prison, will be awarded compensation.

 

In general, the prosecution’s evidence must overcome the defendant’s presumption of innocence, which the Constitution guarantees as due process of law. This means that the burden of proof is on the government of Los Santos. If the prosecution fails to provide proper evidence to justify the given charges it is then up to the judge to make a ruling given the circumstances.

 

Appeals

 

If the suspect has been incarcerated at any government facility (Mission Row, DOC), but has since served his sentence, upon the request of the former-inmate a Public Defender (or Private Attorney) may file an appeal with the SADOJ. A court date would be set and a judgment will be made with the ability of compensation in case of wrongful doing.

 

The Solicitor General's Office would present the case for the Los Santos Police Department. This would include evidence, written statements, and testimony from police officers and eyewitnesses. ((This would involve dashcam footage from the officer's perspective and a series of /me and /do when presenting other evidence in which the players would confirm or deny the assertions made by the police department )). 

 

Government Investigations Court Procedure

 

After an investigation has been carried out by the Attorney General's Office, a Government Prosecutor may bring charges against an individual, company or entity. They may also subpoena witnesses (upon a judge's approval) to testify before the court. The defendant may be represented by a Public Defender, or by a Private Law Office attorney. In these cases, the burden of proof is on the Government Prosecutor. The prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant(s) committed said crime(s). 

 

Court Process: Civil Law

 

A civil court case may be filed on behalf of any individual by, only, a Private Law Office. Cases may be considered under the remit of "civil law" if it concerns a dispute between two (or more) individuals only (and not public entities or bodies). Judges may rule that a party pays compensation to another party, however, they may not be incarcerated as a result of a civil case. If the defendant in a case cannot afford legal counsel, a Public Defender may be assigned to them. 

In civil cases, a judge may rule with regards to the propagation of evidence. In other words, if more than 50% of the weighted evidence is in favor of one party, they will rule in favor said party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alexalex303]

While the legal definitions are correct, I see nothing to address the fact that this is a game, and how that complicates the process.

What happens if no Judges are online? Does the player stay in prison until one is available? Is he released? 

How would you guarantee Judges to be unbiased? Would they only be allowed one account, or would you have them be server staff?

Private Law Offices, do they need to approved by government, or can any felon suddenly become a lawyer for his similarly felonious friend?

These are just a few questions off the top of my head. This idea will require way more effort and thought than what was presented.

Edited April 3, 2019 by alexalex303

[Cyrus Raven]

2 minutes ago, alexalex303 said:

While the legal definitions are correct, I see nothing to address the fact that this is a game, and how that complicates the process.

What happens if no Judges are online? Does the player stay in prison until one is available? Is he released? 

How would you guarantee Judges to be unbiased? Would they only be allowed one account, or would you have them be server staff?

Private Law Offices, do they need to approved by government, or can any felon suddenly become a lawyer for his similarly felonious friend?

These are just a few questions off the top of my head. This idea will require way more effort and thought than what was presented.

2

Thanks for the questions I'll try and clarify. Keep in mind, this is a starting guide, a suggestion to try and implement a system that a lot of players want. I personally am not of the view that such a system shouldn't be discussed or implemented just because every single aspect of the system isn't detailed. I would hope this is something that we could develop as a community with the help of staff and developers.

 

''What happens if no Judges are online? Does the player stay in prison until one is available? Is he released?'' - This question is somewhat addressed in the ''Appeals'' section of the suggestion. If judges are offline the player will have to serve his/her sentence and then appeal/counter-sue the government for wrongful imprisonment through a private law firm.

However, the idea is that having a lawyer or public defendant available to players will offer an opportunity for the player and the officer to interact with each other, explain their side of the stories, examine evidence and then come to an amicable conclusion together.

 

''How would you guarantee Judges to be unbiased? Would they only be allowed one account, or would you have them be server staff?'' - This question is more complicated and it depends on how the system is implemented.

I personally think that this system should be free of corruption via OOC rules, as for the possible bias, as long as a blatant disregard is not shown and a coherent argument is made then that would probably be sufficient. As for the account issue, I think that these positions should be just like any other faction, you can have other characters. If any bias is found to be taking place this player would be punished by staff. These roles shouldn't exclusive to staff, but the initial implementation of the system should be overseen by staff to ensure that the best possible roleplayers are at the core foundation of the faction.

However, I am not entirely opposed to allowing Judges to be paid off or corrupt to some extent, the issue is that at the current time I don't personally trust that most players will be able to roleplay this type of character in a good way, probably due to the low amount of good RPers on the server.

 

 

''Private Law Offices, do they need to approved by government, or can any felon suddenly become a lawyer for his similarly felonious friend?'' - Anyone who has passed the bar examination can be privately contracted. However, if a player wants to go on to create a law firm, they can through the appropriate channels available to them (https://forum.eclipse-rp.net/forum/22-businesses/). As for felons being lawyers, this is something I am heavily against. Any lawyer or player who has passed the bar association and then becomes a felon will automatically have his bar examination revoked. Players should be able to appeal this decision and be given a second chance ONLY after a lengthy amount of time has passed and they have managed to commit no more felonies. 

[flow]

I am in favour of a judicial system where people can appeal a sentence and charges. I think that we as the LSPD are not exempt from making wrong decisions, it happens and in those cases, should be corrected. 

However, I don't think every misdemeanour should be appealable, we will find that anyone will demand to see a judge over any length of sentence, regardless of right or wrong. People would try their luck, which frankly makes sense if the system is in place. Therefore it needs to make sense. If someone appears in front of a judge IC and appeals their sentence, the officers involved will be taken off shift, they'll have to upload their videos, the judge needs to review it, hear everyone`s side of the story, all that while roleplaying it properly. I think you see where this is going. A 15-minute jail sentence will turn into an hour or more of waiting for everyone to be ready, upload their footage, talk it out ICly etc. It`s not viable and not what we`re here for, to play a game and have fun. 

What I`m proposing is to only make certain charges appealable. Misdemeanours should be banned in this process, as they`re just so small and simple that this whole process wouldn`t make much sense. 

If you look at the Penal Code, only crimes that are felonies would make sense to have this process for.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qMm9u2Tl59RBpNyNSA88G7WYPFwiOgzXqL-1cWgAHEc/edit#gid=123845845

[Cyrus Raven]

2 minutes ago, flow said:

I am in favour of a judicial system where people can appeal a sentence and charges. I think that we as the LSPD are not exempt from making wrong decisions, it happens and in those cases, should be corrected. 

However, I don't think every misdemeanour should be appealable, we will find that anyone will demand to see a judge over any length of sentence, regardless of right or wrong. People would try their luck, which frankly makes sense if the system is in place. Therefore it needs to make sense. If someone appears in front of a judge IC and appeals their sentence, the officers involved will be taken off shift, they'll have to upload their videos, the judge needs to review it, hear everyone`s side of the story, all that while roleplaying it properly. I think you see where this is going. A 15-minute jail sentence will turn into an hour or more of waiting for everyone to be ready, upload their footage, talk it out ICly etc. It`s not viable and not what we`re here for, to play a game and have fun. 

What I`m proposing is to only make certain charges appealable. Misdemeanours should be banned in this process, as they`re just so small and simple that this whole process wouldn`t make much sense. 

If you look at the Penal Code, only crimes that are felonies would make sense to have this process for.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qMm9u2Tl59RBpNyNSA88G7WYPFwiOgzXqL-1cWgAHEc/edit#gid=123845845

I agree. While I would like to be able to have a system that allows everyone to appeal to every type of crime it is far too unrealistic in the context of this server.

[trashplayboi]

2 hours ago, Kyle White Raven said:

I agree. While I would like to be able to have a system that allows everyone to appeal to every type of crime it is far too unrealistic in the context of this server.

+1 we can try and get this implemented with some "RP" factors removed for simplicity.

as stated, don't make it count for misdemeanour's, rather the serious crimes. in regards to making the time work, getting a judge, officer and the defendant in one room they can oocly chose a day and time they are both available, and all people in a law business or judges will get a call when they are looking for one. a ic time will be set,

 

if this gets added and anyone wants to start a law firm, hit me up  

[Appelgi]

Great stuff, would love to see it approved.

[Swifty]

I'd certainly love to see some sort of criminal appeal or civil complaint process some time in the future, but I don't think we are at that stage where the government is developed enough to warrant them yet.

 

Not a +1 or -1 from me, though I do think there will be some great discussion within this thread that can be used later to help implement such a system.

[CrowCargo]

Big+1 from me, I would love to see this implemented and develop into a fundamental part of the server! 

[Reckless311]

+1

I think the Attorney General, Deputy AG, and Solicitor Geneneral seems extraneous.  A District Attorney and assistant DA's should suffice.  To ensure that there isn't too much red tape to hinder RP.

The DA, asst DA's and Public Defenders would be paid by the government similar to PD, MD's.  Private lawyers would be paid through legal fees to clients.

 

I think the way the judges are laid out well, just change the name to Chief Judge and judges. 

 

The RP opportunities from this would be many and vary wildly to offer something for everyone.

 

I think the appeal system would work as its laid out.  Low level crimes would be far too many to deal with.  Serious and general felonies only is the right way to go about it. Perhaps adding stone lesser offenses to allow for plea bargaining on serious crimes to get them down to general felonies.  That allows DA's arms defense attorneys more chances at RP scenes that are worthwhile.  (Ex. Adding a manslaughter statue and can resolve the case swiftly.

 

I'd be very interested in making a lawyer character and doing this. 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2019 by Reckless311

[clickclack]

A 2005 game (certain SAMP roleplay communities ) can pull it off, why not? I've experienced this from NGG we have court hearings, judges, jurors, casefiles, etc. 

This server/community is already dead for years, some of our famous players/staffs also came from there. (osborn, langley etc)

(not me on the vid)

Edited May 10, 2019 by clickclack

[alexalex303]

12 hours ago, clickclack said:

A 2005 game (certain SAMP roleplay communities ) can pull it off, why not? I've experienced this from NGG we have court hearings, judges, jurors, casefiles, etc. 

This server/community is already dead for years, some of our famous players/staffs also came from there. (osborn, langley etc)

(not me on the vid)

Because SAMP roleplaying communities had much harsher penalties for criminals. It would make no sense to gather that many people in such an involved roleplay over a 1 hour sentence. If prison times were increased to say, 24 hours, and major crimes such as shooting at police would result in life in prison, then sure, I could see the need for a court system, but right now, it so happens that when cops take their time to roleplay with people going to prison they will sometimes say something like /b this RP is longer than my sentence. That's just getting them to prison with no trial. 

[Wifye]

On 5/10/2019 at 12:45 PM, alexalex303 said:

Because SAMP roleplaying communities had much harsher penalties for criminals. It would make no sense to gather that many people in such an involved roleplay over a 1 hour sentence. If prison times were increased to say, 24 hours, and major crimes such as shooting at police would result in life in prison, then sure, I could see the need for a court system, but right now, it so happens that when cops take their time to roleplay with people going to prison they will sometimes say something like /b this RP is longer than my sentence. That's just getting them to prison with no trial. 

This is pretty spot on in regards to the court being used in conjunction with current laws and prison times.

 

Perhaps the court could be set up for Civil use or major incidents. It could handle things like corruption cases(only after internal investigation are conducted and a case would be recommended), divorces, lawsuits, and other similar situations that aren't based around just generic crimes.

It would open the door to some fun and interesting rp while avoiding dragging out current processing of criminals.

Lawyers could still be called to talk to the police in hopes of getting reduced sentences for clients through plea deals or something but it would be a waste of time to drag every single conviction through a court.

[billzachos]

Even though the idea needs to worked and thought of more, I do think that it would enhance rolepla and needs to be implemented

[Linden]

On 5/11/2019 at 2:45 AM, alexalex303 said:

Because SAMP roleplaying communities had much harsher penalties for criminals. It would make no sense to gather that many people in such an involved roleplay over a 1 hour sentence. If prison times were increased to say, 24 hours, and major crimes such as shooting at police would result in life in prison, then sure, I could see the need for a court system, but right now, it so happens that when cops take their time to roleplay with people going to prison they will sometimes say something like /b this RP is longer than my sentence. That's just getting them to prison with no trial. 

As clickclack stated NGG I'll point out we were only able to give people a 2 hour sentence there as well, but having a court provided many benefits to all parties involved. Judicial had the ability to put people into prison for longer than any of the LEO factions were able and can handle cases outside of an arrest. Having the Detectives Bureau build up a large casefile and bringing them to court for a heftier sentence than otherwise possible, making officers responsible for their actions and potentially having them or the department sued.

Obviously sentences are low, which can be resolved by increasing the max sentence but counting that time down while the character is offline. Players can either go do something else or log into another character. When you bring in a suspect you could implement a system of bail which requires them to follow some rules until their court date; anybody with a history of breaking the terms of bail will lose their right to bail in the future. Only bring the courts into play if the suspect will be going to prison and not jail. They can waive their right to a trial and just serve the sentence or go through the courts and risk receiving a longer sentence and heavier fine. Have the necessary parties agree on a date, if the suspect does not show up or cannot show up within three days they automatically lose the trial and they get a warrant for arrest.

 

Add lawyers to the server, maybe as a faction separate to the DOJ, allow them to come and represent a suspect during the arrest process regardless of the case going to court. They can try to lower the sentence or talk the officer into removing charges; they might also talk their client out of taking the case to court.

[ShyNudist]

+1, but I have a lot of comments and proposed modifications.  Thanks for taking the time to write this up and propose this!

I am actually a lawyer IRL (can provide proof to mods if this is required in case they don't want people making bold claims), and I think it would be really fun to RP a judicial system.  However, as I'm sure most of you are aware, not only is the RL judicial system very complicated, it is also very slow.  One of the main reasons it's slow is because there are so many moving parts.  In addition, the law is complex, because it is designed to deal with a wide variety of situations.  Adopting anything close to a real life judicial system would be far too onerous a task, as everyone involved in the RP would have to spend a substantial amount of time learning the law, including the entire PD.

From a RP perspective, your proposed trial requires too many people to be online.  You need a judge, the arresting officer(s), a proescutor, the defendant, witnesses, and a defense attorney.  Not only does this require a huge amount of coordination and time, it also ties up the officers that may be needed for other crimes around the city.  This doesn't mean that the officers shouldn't need to be present--it just means that the process needs to be relatively quick.

The following area few ideas that could make a Judicial System feasible:

- Because there is already a very handy and comprehensive Penal Code available, there should be a cutoff point at which the judicial system kicks in.  For example, speeding tickets shouldn't tried.  It may make sense to only employ the judicial system for crimes where the prison sentence is 1 hour or longer.

- We should cut out the prosecutor, and instead have the only lawyers in the room be the judge and the defense attorney.  The arresting officer will be forced to take on the role of a "prosecutor," but the legal Role Play only needs to be between the judge and the defense attorney.  The defense attorney's job is to convince the judge that the evidence the officer has gathered is not sufficient to meet the state's burden of proof, and the judge will be the ultimate arbiter.  The arresting officer needs to only present the evidence that he discovered--he should not have a role in arguing whether the burden is met or not.  Here's some more elaboration on how the trial would proceed (they are nothing like IRL court proceedings, but are tailored to make sense for RP):

State's Case in Chief

The arresting officer first takes the stand, submits all of the evidence he has gathered to the judge, and answers any questions the judge has.  After the judge is done questioning the arresting officer, the defense attorney can then cross examine the arresting officer.  This process can be repeated for all of the state's witnesses, although anybody who isn't the arresting officer will not be submitting evidence.  There should be strict time limits on the questioning of witnesses--maybe 10 minutes.

Defendant's Case in Chief

After the state (arresting officer) has made its case, the defendant takes the stand.  The defense attorney will question the defendant, after which the judge will have an opportunity to cross examine.  Each session should last no more than 10 minutes.  Then, any witnesses who are testifying on behalf of the defendant are able to be questioned in the same process.

At the end, the judge will make a final determination.  Maybe the judge will have the authority to either increase or decrease the punishment based on whatever mitigating evidence the defendant presents (duress, etc.).  The person RPing the judge must be impartial and pass some type of legal exam, which I am more than happy to help write.  The entire "trial" shouldn't take more than an hour, although getting everyone together and settled might take longer than that.

- It may make sense to increase the punishment for crimes for which a trial can be held, because now, criminals have a chance of getting away with their crime via the trial.  To be clear, the trial shouldn't just be an extended sentence where the criminal ends up in prison anyway--the defense should be able to win.

RP Benefits of the System

The reason this system works is because it balances the need for efficiency and simplicity with the fun of roleplaying a criminal trial.  For example, witnesses can be bribed, kidnapped, or even killed.  Conversely, they can be actively protected by the police.  Arresting officers will have a much greater incentive to get witnesses who will testify to the crime.  There can be snitches in open court, who may then have to deal with the rest of the gang.  The judge and the defense attorney's questioning of the witnesses to get the whole story will also be an exciting process.  If this works really well, implementation of a jury would be easy, as you would pull random players in to be the actual arbiter.  In that case, the judge would basically be the prosecutor.

Edited June 10, 2019 by ShyNudist

[CrowCargo]

5 minutes ago, ShyNudist said:

+1, but I have a lot of comments and proposed modifications.  Thanks for taking the time to write this up and propose this!

I am actually a lawyer IRL (can provide proof to mods if this is required in case they don't want people making bold claims), and I think it would be really fun to RP a judicial system.  However, as I'm sure most of you are aware, not only is the RL judicial system very complicated, it is also very slow.  One of the main reasons it's slow is because there are so many moving parts.  In addition, the law is complex, because it is designed to deal with a wide variety of situations.  Adopting anything close to a real life judicial system would be far too onerous a task, as everyone involved in the RP would have to spend a substantial amount of time learning the law, including the entire PD.

From a RP perspective, your proposed trial requires too many people to be online.  You need a judge, the arresting officer(s), a proescutor, the defendant, witnesses, and a defense attorney.  Not only does this require a huge amount of coordination and time, it also ties up the officers that may be needed for other crimes around the city.  This doesn't mean that the officers shouldn't need to be present--it just means that the process needs to be relatively quick.

The following area few ideas that could make a Judicial System feasible:

- Because there is already a very handy and comprehensive Penal Code available, there should be a cutoff point at which the judicial system kicks in.  For example, speeding tickets shouldn't tried.  It may make sense to only employ the judicial system for crimes where the prison sentence is 1 hour or longer.

- We should cut out the prosecutor, and instead have the only lawyers in the room be the judge and the defense attorney.  The arresting officer will be forced to take on the role of a "prosecutor," but the legal Role Play only needs to be between the judge and the defense attorney.  The defense attorney's job is to convince the judge that the evidence the officer has gathered is not sufficient to meet the state's burden of proof, and the judge will be the ultimate arbiter.  The arresting officer needs to only present the evidence that he discovered--he should not have a role in arguing whether the burden is met or not.  Here's some more elaboration on how the trial would proceed (they are nothing like IRL court proceedings, but are tailored to make sense for RP):

State's Case in Chief

The arresting officer first takes the stand, submits all of the evidence he has gathered to the judge, and answers any questions the judge has.  After the judge is done questioning the arresting officer, the defense attorney can then cross examine the arresting officer.  This process can be repeated for all of the state's witnesses, although anybody who isn't the arresting officer will not be submitting evidence.  There should be strict time limits on the questioning of witnesses--maybe 10 minutes.

Defendant's Case in Chief

After the state (arresting officer) has made its case, the defendant takes the stand.  The defense attorney will question the defendant, after which the judge will have an opportunity to cross examine.  Each session should last no more than 10 minutes.  Then, any witnesses who are testifying on behalf of the defendant are able to be questioned in the same process.

At the end, the judge will make a final determination.  Maybe the judge will have the authority to either increase or decrease the punishment based on whatever mitigating evidence the defendant presents (duress, etc.).  The person RPing the judge must be impartial and pass some type of legal exam, which I am more than happy to help write.  The entire "trial" shouldn't take more than an hour, although getting everyone together and settled might take longer than that.

RP Benefits of the System

The reason this system works is because it balances the need for efficiency and simplicity with the fun of roleplaying a criminal trial.  For example, witnesses can be bribed, kidnapped, or even killed.  Conversely, they can be actively protected by the police.  Arresting officers will have a much greater incentive to get witnesses who will testify to the crime.  There can be snitches in open court, who may then have to deal with the rest of the gang.  The judge and the defense attorney's questioning of the witnesses to get the whole story will also be an exciting process.  If this works really well, implementation of a jury would be easy, as you would pull random players in to be the actual arbiter.  In that case, the judge would basically be the prosecutor.

HUGE +1

[Reckless311]

I think giving police the ability to adjust sentences would be a huge addition and allow for plea bargaining at Mission Row, which they should have legal representation for, but as stated previously not every offense should go to trial and plea bargaining can be some amusing and fulfilling RP itself.  Trials should only be allowed on cases of the serious felony variety.  That would limit the large scale RP scenes and coordination needed for those.

[CaptMurikuh]

Definitely a huge +1 from me. ShyNudist hit it spot on with their assessment and modifications/recommendations.

I think a good small-scale starting point is to develop a comprehensive BAR exam and application process to becoming a Lawyer. From there, create and publish a Los Santos Citizen's Rights document so that citizens are aware of their basic rights on the server; it seems that there is a fair bit of confusion from both the LSPD and the general population as to the basic rights of a citizen. Considering we have many players from various nationalities, "common sense" rights are a bit out the window. We need to have a written document so that everybody is on the same page. Part of this document would be the right to a State Sponsored Legal Attorney if requested.

I think setting up this system could have extensive RP benefits. As opposed to the PD/Admins essentially being judge, jury and executioner, there is a chance for the defendant to get their case dropped, their sentence reduced, or even potentially extended if the situation warrants it. Of course, as previously pointed out, this whole process from start to finish could take upwards of an hour. If all necessary parties are not available/online (Arresting officer, Defense Lawyer, and Judge), then the system ought to default to how it is now, with the Penal Code providing the sentence.

Edited June 29, 2019 by CaptMurikuh

[VocalPilot]

Huge +1 from me as well. In its current state, police officers own the entirety of the justice system. This not only induces corruption and disparate punishments, but it's also discouraging to players that are punished for crimes that they may not have committed. Let's say, for example... a friend lends his car to another friend for the night without "giving him the keys" and a cop ends up pulling him over. In its current state, the borrowing friend is punished without trial for Grand Theft Auto without regard for the situation or the ability to defend himself and/or call upon a witness to prove the lawful transaction. It's unfair and unrealistic; just one example of many that could portray the message and why I +1 this.

All of the hurdles that people have brought up in this thread I agree with. Mainly, that the realistic justice system is slow and that capacity to have people available at needed times would be difficult. I think at least just considering the points brought up by original poster (e.g. police still able to prosecute as done today, only initiates DOJ involvement upon request for representation/in dispute of a crime, limited DOJ positions, etc.) would be a really cool addition to the server that could positively enhance the roleplay and player experience. I also want to add to this original suggestion to allow for private representation (law firms) as well as requiring all PD use dash and body cams (not sure if something like this is already a thing) for the purpose of prosecution & defense in the case of a potential trial. 

I hope that this will get considered at some point!

[Kenwar]

Because of time zones and the fact that all the players usually are not on at the same time I suggest court cases should be on forums 

[Reckless311]

 

2 hours ago, Kenwar said:

Because of time zones and the fact that all the players usually are not on at the same time I suggest court cases should be on forums 

If the lawyer faction is big enough, that shouldn't be a problem.  There's a lot of interest in it, so I don't see that as a problem as it'd be more of an on the spot thing.  Your lawyer isn't on duty, call a Public Defender. Having judges online would be the same.  It's not a specific judge that hears a case, it would be whichever judge is online.

[Brandon Powers]

+1 Wicked idea, I would really like to see this implemented.

[Puzzling]

Judicial Branch has been created via the Government! Awesome Suggestion

Locked and Archived.