Get rid of the current 30-point criminal system and introduce a revamped approach

[padinni]

Scrap the current 30 criminal points system, with the forced required court case after 30 criminal points. Do not force court on players unless necessary. The courts are already very overwhelmed and have a huge backlog. We need to do something to minimize this. One thing that I find demotivating is to force people to go to court. Normally, the player behind ends up either AFK, quitting, or name-changing, and this has been a problem for a long time. To solve this, my suggestion is to introduce a strike system, so that if a player has exceeded 30 criminal points, all punishment increases with x percent after 40 points, with y percent, etc. This way, the criminal still gets punished for repeated offenses, but is still not forced into a court case. Of course, they can still plead not guilty or no contest as before, just adding the option guilty with increased time.

 

Why? As I said, courts are overwhelmed, overworked, and burnt-out. On top of this, it's extremely demotivating to force RP. Courts are not happy with it because they get low-quality RP from defendants, I am not happy with it because we get no court RP, and the suspect is not happy with it because they are forced to go to court. I think only the players that really want a court case should go to court, as they're the ones motivated to do it. Generally, I am always for more options, both for LEO's and the criminals; it creates a better environment not to force things. 
 

[Anubis]

Yep... It's needed. I don't see why the court should waste OOC time on themselves and the player if they have admitted to their crimes and are willing to serve the time. 

[lightx]

I like the idea, it could be implemented in a way

[Xantholic]

+1

[Nerissa]

+1, getting clients that just throw the case off to name-change is honestly frustrating when you do the work for it, plus there's a lot of court cases where they straight up don't bother getting an attorney, they just let the trial take forever and finally name-change at the end of it, now that it's allowed per the rules. Massive waste of our time.

[Nullish]

Partial -1 
 
It takes quite a while to rack up 30 criminal points, or there's been an extremely serious event which results in a lot of charges. By 30 criminal points, there should be a heavy degree of development that has gone into a character. At some point, the idea of serving a life sentence SHOULD dictate a character's willingness to continue to do crime. If they choose to keep doing crime, they need to refine how involved they are in on, or how they approach committing said crimes. With this system, you would pretty much negate that. The idea of someone being able to endlessly go out and commit violent crimes (murders etc) does not sound very RP-focused
 
Required cases are far and few between at this point. With the new contempt of court change, four days is simply added to their minimum sentence. They aren't forced to attend a required case, simply due to a contempt charge. Cases in which they are forced to attend a court case, are situations like murder that results in a CK. As someone who was in the District Attorney's Office, 90% of cases are easily due to 'not guilty' pleas, and the ones that ARE a required case (Such as those that would result in over 20 days in jail at a minimum) are extremely serious crimes, that should result in the development of going to court. While they are in court, there is plenty of RP to had in the corrections setting. (Assuming you are a male / male minor. But I've seen as of recent, the female pod is picking up in activity due to forum posts etc). 
 
Instead, players who opt to try and NC out of court cases should simply be punished. Not roleplaying the circumstances of your charges, such as court, seems very P2W. That being said, even if they go to court, the gravity may not be felt considering they can just NC AFTER court, while they are in jail. 
 
The court system is already VERY lenient and limited on what it can do. Judges could put tighter deadlines on replies, under the threat of summary judgement; but often time they are given weeks for responses. 
 
TLDR: Something needs to change, but this system may not have the intended effects; nor does it seem very roleplay focused.
 

[Jorgensen]

Partial -1, if the person has 30 criminal points and denies it? Then it definitely should be a mandatory courtcase. However, in the event they admit to their crimes? It shouldn't be mandatory to sit through a courtcase, just do a sentencing. As Nullish mentioned, there should be development into a character. Removal of the system completely would take away any way of dissuading people away from crime. Allowing people to just consistently go out on murder sprees etc with no IC repercussions for the offender isn't heavy RP focused and shouldn't be something we aim for. 

 

Enforce more responsiveness in court cases, be more strict about response deadlines, and issue a summary judgement if it really takes forever between responses. 

[Fanden]

People who have a required case can still plead guilty. They can either post on their case that they're pleading guilty, or make a ticket in the JSA discord to change their plea to guilty.

[b777v]

+1