Laws and Procedure
From FiranMUX
This document is intended as an introduction to the Firan legal system. It will briefly trace the criminal justice system from crime to judgement.
Contents |
"Help, Guards!"
Who: Guards
Someone has been accused of a crime. The guards have been informed by a player (help @crimes), witnesses, or by a guard yell (help guardyell).
OOC:
1. Remember that the accused is not "innocent until proven guilty", but rather "guilty until proven innocent". As result the guards have considerable latitude in how to deal with the accused.
Step 2 – "A nice cuppa…"
Who: Guards
You're on guard duty and you're enjoying a nice cup of tea and a doughnut when you're informed that a criminal is around. Do you leap into action with your nightstick in hand ready to dispense justice? No. You check jurisdiction. This is a critical phase and involves four simple questions before you do anything:
1. What? – What was the crime? Capital crimes such as slaving and treason are automatically Republic jurisdiction, regardless of who committed them and where they were committed. They are also automatically tried by the Ranivor or the Lord Viceroy).
2. Where? – Where was the crime committed? If it was in a Republic area (e.g. the Palace District), it is Republic jurisdiction. If it was in a Clan District then its that Clan's guards' jurisdiction.
3. Who? – Who was the crime committed by? This is least important, but should be considered. Some clans, most notably the Hydra Clan, get remarkably snippy about people arresting their citizens or those in its control. If the individual has managed to flee back to their home district sometimes its not worth a guard's job to go after them and you'll need to refer this to a higher power for a decision. If you're just a commoner and the culprit is a Noble or Royal then it is definitely not wise for you to pursue them on your own.
Step 3 – "Stop thief!"
Who: Guards + a Judge (maybe)
At this time you've established that a crime has been committed in your jurisdiction. Technically the correct course of action is to:
1. Go to the legal buildings and apply for a writ of demand. The writ of demand essentially demands that the person turns him or herself into the guards. Eagles, notably, will fight high and long if they are dragged to court without all the nuts and bolts in place.
2. Get the writ signed by a Judge.
3. Check if they're currently in your jurisdiction. If you're a Republic guard, are they still in the Palace District? If they are you may proceed to arrest them. If they're somewhere else, like another Clan District, then you need to either wait for them to come out, or apply for permission from the Clan Leader or Proxy to go in and fetch them. Messengers do not cut it. You want that permission written, in ink. Wars have almost been started over Republic or another Clan's guards entering another Clan's area without permission. Yes, yes, the rules say that guards, "in hot pursuit" can pursue a criminal, but that's simply not always the case.
4. Check if they're a noble. Commoners can't arrest nobles, only nobles can. If you're a commoner trying arrest a noble you need a noble to make the arrest, end of story.
5. If it all checks out then you can go an arrest them.
Technically, but who really does all that? Most guards will find the criminal, bludgeon them into unconsciousness and drag them back to the cells by their big toe, laughing as the criminal's head bounces off the cobblestones. Charges etc come later, once the criminal is safely behind bars.
OOC:
1. The sequence of events presented above is the correct sequence legally, but it is followed by exception rather than as a rule.
2. When arresting someone you technically need a writ of demand. To get this go to the legal building (for Republic guards the Unity Building, for others your clan's legal building), and type "@writ/apply writ of arrest". You'll get a whole lot of prompts from the legal official about who, why, and whether you have any doughnuts. If you did it right you are now the proud possessor of a writ of arrest. Half way there. The writ is not granted yet. You now need the signature of a Judge of the appropriate court to grant the writ. You can obtain this one of two ways. You can either type "@writ/grant writ of arrest" straight away, and attempt to use your legal skills to convince the legal official to grant the writ, or you can contact a PC Judge. Contacting a PC Judge is nice because it spreads RP around and makes them feel all important and loved. If the writ is for an RP based interaction, e.g. a writ of replevin, the Judge can just sign it. If its required for a coded process then the Judge (who probably has higher legal skills than you) must also run the @writ/grant code. Only the Eagle clan's citizens will really object to being arrested without a writ of arrest.
- You need legal skills to even know that writs exist. Do not RP as though you know about the writ if you have no legal skills. **
3. While the person is presumed guilty it is generally considered uncouth to deliver them back to the prison as a bloody heap. You can, of course, rough up your prisoner -- but you want to make sure you OOCly know when to pull back. That said, if your character would just keep going? By all means. Conflict is the nature of drama. Better yet being well armed and using Social Imperatives is a great way to really get people to squeal.
4. This is a good time to start the paperwork. Guards have a series of @case commands they can use to record the details of cases. This is not only a good idea IC, but a great idea OOCly in case you roster, or aren't around and someone needs to check the status of the case.
Step 4 – "Checking in"
Who: Guards + Judge (maybe) + Lawyer (maybe)
Congratulations, you're now the proud owner of one criminal, all duly arrested. You escort them to the Jail. Now you need to check they're not carrying any concealed weapons, like pocket ballista, or a loaded ferret. The correct protocol is to order the prisoner to:
1. Type "undress".
2. Type "wear tunic" or "wear stola", depending on gender, or sexual orientation.
3. Type "Jail Storage".
4. Then you look at the criminal. If you're not 100% satisfied that they're carrying nothing unusual or irregular get them to do it again. If they don't comply @911 to call a Wizard so you can enjoy the highly exciting Guard RP of beating the prisoner unconscious and relieving them of their belongings.
5. Nobles are entitled to slightly more courteous treatment, but the same basic rules apply, and the same commands should be used to ensure that nothing illegal gets into the cells.
Unless you already have overwhelming evidence you'll now want to hold a short interrogation. This may or may not involve physical force. Please respect someone's desire to FTB (Fade to Black) to skip over torture elements of the interrogation if you're going to employ such techniques. At the end of this though you will have some idea what charges they're going to face. Go down to the legal building and file the charges.
Once charges (@charge <player>/<crime>) are filed the criminal's bail will be automatically set.
OOC:
1. If you don't follow the undress, wear stola/tunic, jail storage, look prisoner routine the Wizards will have little or no pity for you. If you're the least bit suspicious then don't let it slide, you will be held accountable later.
2. Interrogation has as many shades as the rainbow, from the 'killing with kindess' (Would you like a wafer-thin mint to finish off your meal Lord Prisoner?), to just plain killing (Hulk SMASH!). Social imps must, as always, be RP'd, and scenes should continue to follow FiranMUX's PG-13 standards.
3. What do I charge them with? In most cases there isn't a specific crime that covers what they did, so if it doesn't fit one of the regular categories it generally goes under "Regulation Violation". No, no one is really sure where these mysterious Regulations are that are being Violated, but it's a great catch-all for miscellaneous criminal. You could always consult a Judge for more information.
4. Judges, if you want to adjust their bail the command is @bail/adjust <criminal>= amount. Please remember that this raises (if a +ve number) or lowers (if a –ve number) the bail by the amount specified, e.g. if you want to raise bail from 200 stenis to 1000 stenis then you adjust it by 800 stenis (the difference), not by 1000. Raising bails to obscene amounts for trivial offenses is bad form unless the criminal is a flight risk. Flight risks include Hydrans (the clan is notorious for denying any criminal culpability on the part of its citizens), Old City denizens (the guards don't want to have to make a house call to ensure he turns up), and Ticanee (if they did something stupid the Oshtas may just execute the person for being stupid. In this case its not imprisonment, its protective custody wink.gif ).
5. Lawyers, there is something called a writ of habeus corpus. Theoretically it releases your client without having to pay bail. It is difficult to use but not impossible. 'news writ of habeus corpus'
Step 5 – "Is there a Judge in the house?"
Who: Judges + Clan Leaders + Viceroy
1. For trials on Capital crimes, such as Treason, Slaving, etc. the jurisdiction if automatically Republic, and the Judge is automatically the Lord Viceroy.
2. For all other trials please check you have jurisdiction to assign the trial. Do not claim Republic trials if you're an Eagle, and visa versa. Jurisdiction can be transferred or waived at the discretion of the big-shots (Clan Leaders, the Viceroy).
3. There are two methods of assigning trials, either the Clan Leader (CL) or Lord Viceroy (LV) decides who gets which trials or each Judge claims those trials that interest them (excluding of course those trials the CL or LV claims).
Option A has IC advantages, such as the CL or LV retaining more political control over the trials in terms of selecting the judge they want for each trial, matching sentencing tendencies and political agendas, but it suffers some major OOC disadvantages.
Option B allows several important OOC advantages, allowing Judges to only select trials that they know they have time to deal with properly, and choosing trials in which they know they have no alt-conflicts.
Alt-conflicts can be a continuous OOC nuisance for Judges. If someone suspects that there might an ALT-conflict, respect that alt-conflict. You, or the person, may @request for an official wizard ruling. Don't just dive in because "oh, we didn't know" -- if the concern is there, find out if it's alright to RP it out. If it isn't, hand the case off.
Once you have claimed the trial (or been assigned it) using the @trial/assign <trial number>=<judge name> you should contact all the critical parties by @mail. These parties would be defendant and his/her legal team, the prosecutor and the judge. List when you're available and try to establish a good time to have the trial so that the critical people can make it. It is a big enough task trying to synchronise the schedule of three people. If you want to make it a public trial put it on the @cal and people who are around can come. For planning purposes, budget 2 hours for a trial: 30 minutes for prosecution, 30 minutes for defense, 30 minutes for the Judge to pontificate, and 30 minutes to get everything started. Trials are normally conducted in your Clan's designated Court House. For the Republic, the Unity Building.
If there are irreconcilable timezone issues a 'trial by scroll' can be held, where people submit scrolls containing the evidence and arguments and counter-arguments. Generally there are three copies of each, all signed and witnesses, one for the prosecution, one for the defense and one for the Judge. This is also a suitable type of trial for situations where the person's guilt is not at issue, for example, if a signed confession is obtained.
A note on claiming trials. Please be careful to only claim those trials that belong to your court. The @trial command will list all available trials, and when they are unclaimed will list the name of the legal official of that court, so Kralentor for Republic trials, etc. You can see details by typing @trial <number>, and it will state which court that legal official belongs to. People will be understandably snippy ICly if a Republic Judge takes an Eagle trial, and visa versa.
Lawyers - Technically trials are supposed to be scheduled within a certain number of days of arrest (14 IRL days). It would be possible to try to argue that the case is so stale, it doesn't matter -- but that is an uphill battle.
Step 6 - "Order in the Court!"
Who: Everyone who is there.
How you run your trials and maintain order in your courtroom really are your own business. Some general common sense rules apply:
1. Keep the plebian masses in line - No-one wants to stretch the trial out to 4 or 6 hours, so you don't have time for everyone in the courtroom to pose. If spectators make a nuisance of themselves then throw them out, hit them with spot fines, or get the bailiff to club them.
2. Pre-written Poses - The prosecution and defense should have a decent idea of their basic arguments and counter-arguments before the trial begins. They can, and should, prepare these to save everyone in the room waiting while they type up three screens worth of evidence. They should likewise know which witnesses they want to call. If the witnesses are PC's I would recommend getting signed and witnessed scrolls as IRL sometimes happens and a key defense witness might not turn up.
3. As a Judge, do your homework. Use @record/search to check for similar cases and the punishments handed down. Walk into the court-room with an idea of what are reasonable punishments for the crime, and what sort of defenses you will entertain as being either totally valid, or mitigating circumstances. Nobody wants to wait for 30 minutes while you type up your judgement.
4. Don't make the Judgement until you're sure. If this means saying to everyone that you need to contemplate the evidence and you'll get back to them next week once you've discussed the issue with the CL, Uf, or the faeries that live at the bottom of your garden, then do it. You're the Judge! While its dramatic to deliver the judgement to a packed courtroom it is ultimately unnecessary, they can read about it on the BB.
5. Trials are a great place for RP. The spectators can RP via table talk (help places) at their benches, but allow the prosecution and defense to have a good time. As the Judge it is very easy to monopolise the RP at the trial, try not to. Even if you don't let the defense speak encourage them to pose the look on their face, sobbing at the verdict, or whatever.
6. Unless there's someone there who seriously outranks you, like a noble or a CL or the LV, you can run things however you want. Every Firan Judge is aware of this fact, and you make the rules and call the shots. You can use this power whenever you need to manage the pace of the trial and ensure it finishes on time.
7. The Gods are watching. To balance what I said in 6 above remember that the Gods on FiranMux are around. In part, the legal power you wield comes from a divine right passed down from the CL or LV. Blasphemy in the courtroom should not be tolerated, and your conduct should likewise take this into account.
Step 7 - "So it is written, so let it be done."
Who: Judge
The judgement is always the most fun part of any trial for a judge, but its not the end of the work by any means. Here are some hints on making judgements:
1. Check the records. @record/search is your friend.
2. Check with a more experienced Judge or your CL. ICly if possible, or OOCly to ensure its thematic and appropriate.
3. Quote someone. Saying stuff like, "In accordance with the precedent established by the Honorable Elianos, ..." covers your butt and anyone saying your judgement is unfair isn't only going up against you, they're going up against the Honorable Elianos. Not a bright move.
4. Firan Law does not work on precedent all the time. It's not a bad idea to follow it, but you are also able to ignore prior rulings. It's hit or miss. The people will either love it or hate it.
5. Jail time sucks. Being stuck in jail on Firan sucks, especially if you're alone. You might as well not log on. The idea is not to punish the player, but rather the character. If there are better punishments, use them. If not, remind the character that there is always a staff-alt, Sito, in the jail. All the player has to do is pop on help and ask someone to temp Sito.
6. Firans DO NOT decapitate -- UNLESS the Religious Council has said that they are soul deathing (see 'news soul death') the person. DO NOT punish anyone by means of cutting off any limbs. That is out of your realm.
7. Try to remember to congratulate the investigating officers and the prosecution. This is necessary because the officer who made the charges gets a stenis bonus, and if he's not listed in your judgement that can't happen.
Right, you've made your judgement! What now? If you judgement included fines you need to actually set those manually. The command if @fine <player>=amount. If your judgement needs supervision, you need to remember to check up on it later. If you ordered someone stocked then you need to make arrangements with the guards to run the stocking command.
General hints and tips
1. @legal/help - Type this at any legal building and it'll give you a list of useful legal commands. 2. Store writs - Do not throw them away, eat them or anything else. 3. Help legal system index - Read everything. 4. News legal system index - Read everything
