- September 26th, 2020, 3:12 am
#184075
Judge sucks right now. Here's how to fix it:
Judges need more power.
As it stands right now, the role of judges is very limited. All they can do is send someone BACK to jail, and the time the trial took was probably longer than whatever sentence they will receive. I believe that judges need to be able to sentence criminals to longer sentences, such as up to 30 or 40 minutes EDIT: 40 minutes is too much, I'd say around 25-30 would be a more acceptable amount of time. Additionally, this sentencing should be for the actual time spent in jail. I have made a diagram to show how this would work:
I feel the most important part is that judges should be able to set longer sentences BUT players may leave during their imprisonment. This would stop the timer so that when they come back they serve the rest of their sentence. To limit the amount of complication this could lead to in terms of storing these times in a database, all still-in-progress imprisonments would end. Additionally, bail can now only be used to let someone be free in the time leading up to their trial. Gone are the days where an officer would arrest a known criminal, only to have them pay the measly 2000 bamboo fee. To counter-act fugitives who fail to appear, the police can use warrants to re-arrest a suspect if they have failed to appear. Sure it sounds complicated, but it's a massive improvement from the current system.
Judges should be appointed by the Mayor.
As the title says. Why should judges have to attain THIRTY votes just to get their role? And why should they have to be a lawyer for SEVENTY-FIVE hours! Mayors need to have more power as well, and giving them the authority to appoint judges is something that would help make the role more powerful. EDIT: Some people have told me that appointing judges isn't the best idea, so I think it should be that judges can still be voted in OR appointed, and to be appointed they have to meet the requirements that judges who are voted in are held to. Additionally, the requirements need to be lowered, especially the 75 hours as lawyer requirement and the requirement to get 30 votes.
Trials need to be used more often.
As I've shown with my diagram, trials would be more common. Currently, a suspect needs to be charged by a chief to go to trial, and they are under no obligation to actually go. In addition, judges are few in number, meaning that there's less chance of a judge being on when a trial could even occur under the current rules.
Rule Changes
To spell out these changes in a more simple way, here are the current judge rules:
Rules: Police, Lawyers and Judges
1. Only Police Chiefs and higher may charge players with a court hearing.
2. You may set a maximum jail time of 15 minutes.
3. The minimum bail that MUST be given is 500 bamboo, and the officer can add an extra 100 bamboo per offense, although you MUST not exceed a bail of 2000 bamboo.
4. Once the arrested player has been charged with a crime and hires a lawyer, the player must be handcuffed and escorted by police to the Court House upon being summoned by a Judge.
5. A player charged with a crime is not obligated to hire a lawyer nor show up to their court hearing. In this scenario, they must complete their jail time to its entirety and be sentenced guilty by a Judge.
6. If the charged player with a pending court hearing fulfills their prison time to its entirety without showing up to court, a Judge must sentence them guilty, so the offense is added to their criminal record.
7. The charged player MUST be represented in Court by their hired Lawyer. If the hired lawyer is no longer online, the player must find a new Lawyer or complete their remaining prison time.
8. Leaving the server to avoid arrests and court dates will result in a punishment for FAIL RP!
9. Lawyer and Judges: All forms of crime, corruption, or professional misconduct will result in an instant demotion. Examples include:
1. Possession of illegal items such as weapons, berries, explosives, and other contraband.
2. Lawyers: Scamming your clients. If you received payment for your services but did not perform them, you must refund your client.
3. Judges: Being biased towards a group or receiving bribes and other favors.
4. Judges and Lawyers are not allowed to be a part of any criminal group or activity.
10. Note: You must apply on our Forums to be considered for Police Deputy, Captain, Chief, as well as Judge positions.
And here are the rules if all of my changes were implemented:
Rules: Police, Lawyers and Judges
1. Police may charge players with a court hearing upon being arrested and taken to jail.
2. You may set a maximum jail time of 20 minutes before trial.
3. The minimum bail that MUST be given is 500 bamboo, and the officer can add an extra 100 bamboo per offense, although you MUST not exceed a bail of 2000 bamboo. Bail may only be used to be released from jail while awaiting a trial, not after you have been sentenced by a judge. A charged player who posts bail is still obligated to attend court.
4. Once the arrested player has been charged with a crime, the player may be handcuffed and escorted by police to the Court House upon being summoned by a Judge, but must do so before the end of their time in jail.
5. A player charged with a crime is not obligated to hire a lawyer. They must show up to their court hearing if they have been charged.
6. If the charged player with a pending court hearing leaves the server or goes missing before their court date, they may have a warrant put on them, in which case they will go straight to trial.
7. The charged player may be represented in Court by their hired Lawyer.
8. If a judge is not online within 5 minutes of the court date, the suspect is allowed to go free.
9. If a suspect pleads guilty to an offence at the start of their court hearing, the judge may begin sentencing the criminal.
10. If a suspect pleads not guilty to an offence at the start of their court hearing, they must go through the process of a trial, after which they will be sentenced if they are found to be guilty.
11. If a suspect leaves on purpose during their court hearing, they may be punished for FailRP.
12. A judge may sentence a convicted criminal for up to 40 minutes. The criminal is expected to complete the entire sentence but may leave, and upon returning, shall complete the remaining time.
13. Lawyer and Judges: All forms of crime, corruption, or professional misconduct will result in an instant demotion. Examples include:
1. Possession of illegal items such as weapons, berries, explosives, and other contraband.
2. Lawyers: Scamming your clients. If you received payment for your services but did not perform them, you must refund your client.
3. Judges: Being biased towards a group or receiving bribes and other favors.
4. Judges and Lawyers are not allowed to be a part of any criminal group or activity.
5. Judges and those before the court must follow any relevant laws related to trial procedure during a trial.
14. Note: You must apply on our Forums to be considered for Police Deputy, Captain, Chief, as well as Judge positions, or may be appointed by the current Mayor.
Judges need more power.
As it stands right now, the role of judges is very limited. All they can do is send someone BACK to jail, and the time the trial took was probably longer than whatever sentence they will receive. I believe that judges need to be able to sentence criminals to longer sentences, such as up to 30 or 40 minutes EDIT: 40 minutes is too much, I'd say around 25-30 would be a more acceptable amount of time. Additionally, this sentencing should be for the actual time spent in jail. I have made a diagram to show how this would work:
I feel the most important part is that judges should be able to set longer sentences BUT players may leave during their imprisonment. This would stop the timer so that when they come back they serve the rest of their sentence. To limit the amount of complication this could lead to in terms of storing these times in a database, all still-in-progress imprisonments would end. Additionally, bail can now only be used to let someone be free in the time leading up to their trial. Gone are the days where an officer would arrest a known criminal, only to have them pay the measly 2000 bamboo fee. To counter-act fugitives who fail to appear, the police can use warrants to re-arrest a suspect if they have failed to appear. Sure it sounds complicated, but it's a massive improvement from the current system.
Judges should be appointed by the Mayor.
As the title says. Why should judges have to attain THIRTY votes just to get their role? And why should they have to be a lawyer for SEVENTY-FIVE hours! Mayors need to have more power as well, and giving them the authority to appoint judges is something that would help make the role more powerful. EDIT: Some people have told me that appointing judges isn't the best idea, so I think it should be that judges can still be voted in OR appointed, and to be appointed they have to meet the requirements that judges who are voted in are held to. Additionally, the requirements need to be lowered, especially the 75 hours as lawyer requirement and the requirement to get 30 votes.
Trials need to be used more often.
As I've shown with my diagram, trials would be more common. Currently, a suspect needs to be charged by a chief to go to trial, and they are under no obligation to actually go. In addition, judges are few in number, meaning that there's less chance of a judge being on when a trial could even occur under the current rules.
Rule Changes
To spell out these changes in a more simple way, here are the current judge rules:
Rules: Police, Lawyers and Judges
1. Only Police Chiefs and higher may charge players with a court hearing.
2. You may set a maximum jail time of 15 minutes.
3. The minimum bail that MUST be given is 500 bamboo, and the officer can add an extra 100 bamboo per offense, although you MUST not exceed a bail of 2000 bamboo.
4. Once the arrested player has been charged with a crime and hires a lawyer, the player must be handcuffed and escorted by police to the Court House upon being summoned by a Judge.
5. A player charged with a crime is not obligated to hire a lawyer nor show up to their court hearing. In this scenario, they must complete their jail time to its entirety and be sentenced guilty by a Judge.
6. If the charged player with a pending court hearing fulfills their prison time to its entirety without showing up to court, a Judge must sentence them guilty, so the offense is added to their criminal record.
7. The charged player MUST be represented in Court by their hired Lawyer. If the hired lawyer is no longer online, the player must find a new Lawyer or complete their remaining prison time.
8. Leaving the server to avoid arrests and court dates will result in a punishment for FAIL RP!
9. Lawyer and Judges: All forms of crime, corruption, or professional misconduct will result in an instant demotion. Examples include:
1. Possession of illegal items such as weapons, berries, explosives, and other contraband.
2. Lawyers: Scamming your clients. If you received payment for your services but did not perform them, you must refund your client.
3. Judges: Being biased towards a group or receiving bribes and other favors.
4. Judges and Lawyers are not allowed to be a part of any criminal group or activity.
10. Note: You must apply on our Forums to be considered for Police Deputy, Captain, Chief, as well as Judge positions.
And here are the rules if all of my changes were implemented:
Rules: Police, Lawyers and Judges
1. Police may charge players with a court hearing upon being arrested and taken to jail.
2. You may set a maximum jail time of 20 minutes before trial.
3. The minimum bail that MUST be given is 500 bamboo, and the officer can add an extra 100 bamboo per offense, although you MUST not exceed a bail of 2000 bamboo. Bail may only be used to be released from jail while awaiting a trial, not after you have been sentenced by a judge. A charged player who posts bail is still obligated to attend court.
4. Once the arrested player has been charged with a crime, the player may be handcuffed and escorted by police to the Court House upon being summoned by a Judge, but must do so before the end of their time in jail.
5. A player charged with a crime is not obligated to hire a lawyer. They must show up to their court hearing if they have been charged.
6. If the charged player with a pending court hearing leaves the server or goes missing before their court date, they may have a warrant put on them, in which case they will go straight to trial.
7. The charged player may be represented in Court by their hired Lawyer.
8. If a judge is not online within 5 minutes of the court date, the suspect is allowed to go free.
9. If a suspect pleads guilty to an offence at the start of their court hearing, the judge may begin sentencing the criminal.
10. If a suspect pleads not guilty to an offence at the start of their court hearing, they must go through the process of a trial, after which they will be sentenced if they are found to be guilty.
11. If a suspect leaves on purpose during their court hearing, they may be punished for FailRP.
12. A judge may sentence a convicted criminal for up to 40 minutes. The criminal is expected to complete the entire sentence but may leave, and upon returning, shall complete the remaining time.
13. Lawyer and Judges: All forms of crime, corruption, or professional misconduct will result in an instant demotion. Examples include:
1. Possession of illegal items such as weapons, berries, explosives, and other contraband.
2. Lawyers: Scamming your clients. If you received payment for your services but did not perform them, you must refund your client.
3. Judges: Being biased towards a group or receiving bribes and other favors.
4. Judges and Lawyers are not allowed to be a part of any criminal group or activity.
5. Judges and those before the court must follow any relevant laws related to trial procedure during a trial.
14. Note: You must apply on our Forums to be considered for Police Deputy, Captain, Chief, as well as Judge positions, or may be appointed by the current Mayor.
Last edited by NeedlessMemeing on September 27th, 2020, 9:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
MattCobra liked this
Discord: NeedlessMemeing#8737
Steam Profile: https://steamcommunity.com/id/needlessmemeing
Steam64: 76561198110021934
Quotes
I'm voting for AnarchyMachine - MrDeeTee
I'm fucking retarded - MrDeeTee
You dingo - Aren
Have u ever seen needless and Hitler in the same room - MrDeeTee
(whilst whistling) It's not music its autism - MrDeeTee
Noob --> RP Trial Mod 17/8/18
RP Trial Mod --> RP Mod 1/9/18
RP Mod --> RP Supermod 17/11/18
Steam Profile: https://steamcommunity.com/id/needlessmemeing
Steam64: 76561198110021934
Quotes
I'm voting for AnarchyMachine - MrDeeTee
I'm fucking retarded - MrDeeTee
You dingo - Aren
Have u ever seen needless and Hitler in the same room - MrDeeTee
(whilst whistling) It's not music its autism - MrDeeTee
Noob --> RP Trial Mod 17/8/18
RP Trial Mod --> RP Mod 1/9/18
RP Mod --> RP Supermod 17/11/18
