Filing a judicial case

Your community can run a judicial system, and COURT is your side of it. It is roleplay - an invented system for an invented town.

COURT carries a number when the judicial desk has sent you something you have not read.

My cases

Every case involving any of your civilians, whether you filed it or somebody filed it against you. Each row shows the docket number, the title, the case type, when it was filed, the next hearing if one is listed, your plea if you have entered one, and where the case has got to.

Entering a plea

If one of your civilians is the defendant on a criminal case, the row carries a plea control: guilty, not guilty or no contest. Pick one and select ENTER PLEA.

• Enter it before the hearing. The judicial desk is told as soon as you do.
• You can change it while the case is still open with CHANGE PLEA. Every version is kept and the judicial desk can see the history.
• Pleas close once the case has been heard.

A plea can be entered only on your own civilian's case.

Calendar

CALENDAR lists your hearings for the next seven days, with the hearing type, the docket number, the courtroom and the time. With none scheduled it says so.

Notices

Summonses, hearing dates, reschedules and outcomes appear under NOTICES. An unread notice is marked NEW; MARK ALL READ clears them. Nothing is deleted - the case itself is the record.

If a hearing moves, the notice shows the new time and the reason the judicial desk gave.

Filing a civil case

FILE A CIVIL CASE brings a matter to the judicial desk yourself. You need:

• which of your civilians is filing - a case is filed by a civilian, not by an account;
• one respondent - either another civilian or one of your community's departments, not both;
• what the case is about, in a few words;
• what happened, in your own words;
• what you are asking for - an amount, an order, an apology.

Select FILE THE CASE. Filing puts the case straight onto the docket. The judicial desk is told at once, and every update after that - a hearing, a decision - reaches you here.

Each civilian may have up to five open cases at a time. Wait for one to finish before filing another.

What you cannot do

• File as somebody else's civilian.
• File against a civilian or department in a different community.
• Have a civilian sue itself.
• Touch another player's case, or another community's docket, in any way.

Who else sees it

A case is a public record inside your community: the judicial desk sees the docket, and officers involved in the case are told when it is scheduled or decided. A conviction is added to your civilian's records index, so an officer running the name will see it. An acquittal or a dismissal is not.

Back to the PlateNet documentation index / All Civilian pages