Amendment to the Court Rules

[SillyString]

The court has passed the following changes to its rules:

1. The Adopted Court Rules will be re-titled "Court Rules and Procedures".

2. Section 3 will be amended to read as follows:

Section 3: Evidence

1. The Court accepts both documentary evidence and witness testimony as valid submissions.
2. Objections to evidence by either the Prosecution or the Defense must clearly explain why, in accordance with the Court Rules and general legal principles, the evidence in question should not be admitted into the court record.
3. Relevant evidence may be admitted or excluded at the discretion of the Moderating Justice after hearing from both sides.
4. Documentary evidence, which includes forum posts or threads, off-site chat logs, screenshots and other evidence of a similar nature, must be authenticated according to the criteria below:
   • Content which does not appear in its original form and location, such as off-site chat logs, screenshots, transcripts, or quotes, must be authenticated through witness testimony regardless of how public it is when it is presented as evidence.
   • Forum posts and threads may be accepted without authentication, as long as the Moderating Justice is provided with a direct link to the posts and threads entered into evidence and is able to view them in their original locations. The Moderating Justice must confirm that the evidence submitted does not contain any content that does not appear in the original location before accepting it without authentication.
   • Witness testimony is always an acceptable way to authenticate evidence.
   • The Moderating Justice may, when appropriate, waive authentication requirements for individual pieces of evidence. They must provide an explanation for doing so.
5. Witness testimony must be gathered in the form of a deposition or a statement.
6. Depositions will adhere to the following procedures:
   • Witness depositions must be conducted in a forum thread separate from the trial thread.
   • Any Justice may moderate a deposition.
   • Before answering any questions, the witness must swear the following oath: "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
   • Both parties will have the opportunity to ask questions of the witness, in turn.
   • Each party will have the opportunity to object to questions posed to the witness by the other party before the questions are answered.
   • If an objection is made, the questioning party will have the opportunity to withdraw the question or defend against the objection.
   • The Justice present will rule on objections to questions that are not withdrawn.
   • The witness will answer all remaining questions.
   • At the completion of a deposition, the Moderating Justice will publish an official record version of the deposition in the trial thread, with appropriate edits in accordance with any sustained objections.
   • Depositions which deviate from the above procedures may be admitted at the discretion of the Moderating Justice.
7. Witness statements must be sent directly to the Moderating Justice by the witness before the scheduled end of Evidence Submission. Witness statements must begin with the following oath: "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." The Moderating Justice will post the statement in the trial thread.
8. During Evidence Submission, either party may make a motion to require a deposition from a particular witness providing a statement.

 

[Crushing Our Enemies]

The big changes here are that depositions will take place on the forums in the future, and some documentary evidence may not require authentication in the future. I am working on preparing a guide to conducting forum depositions quickly and efficiently.

EDIT: Also, to be clear, these were drafted, debated, and voted on before Abbey took office.

 

[SillyString]

We have now released a new template for requests for review as well! The new one should, hopefully, be clearer and easier to use all around.