GTAV Debrief of Courthouse // Suggestions // Improvements

[Mouseyy]

For those of you that missed the court case, well let's just say it was an experience and a half. Let me preface this post by saying, this is all from an ooc perspective, with nothing influenced based on the results of the case (so no I'm not just being salty). I hope that myself and others can peacefully and civilly discuss how court went, improvements that could be made, and suggestions for the future. So strap in cause this is about to be a long one.

1) The first biggest, and honestly most important issue in my opinion would be the voice and ability to hear people throughout the courthouse. Now part of this is just the way fivem is wired, the distancing etc. I believe an easy fix to this would be simply have anyone who's in the case in a designated teamspeak channel. Only give talk power to those involved in the case (the judge, prosecutor, defendants etc.) This is going to stop the repetition from judges etc, so we aren't asking people to constantly repeat what they are saying.

2) Plan more time in advance. Now this will go into point three as well. But there wasn't much time for any preparing. I myself ended up with three lawyers. I had one assigned, and didn't have a chance to speak with him at all, so about 4 hours before the court case I switched lawyers to one that was around, so I could actually speak to a lawyer. And then once the court case started my lawyer had to leave about half way through, so then I got a third lawyer. Now logically that made it a shit show, I'm trying to explain to the third lawyer an entire 1 hour situation in ten minutes on a recess. Now mind you I'm not blaming anyone for this, but I think more planning, and more time would have made this avoidable.

3) Training for lawyers, PLEASE. Now I understand that this is just rp, it's just a server etc. But just as cops go through training, I believe that it is also important for the lawyers to go through training as well. If not we will have a situation, where every questions ask turns into an objection of some sort, just because they don't realize what and how they can ask questions. I believe not only would this had made court run a lot smoother, it would have made it a lot shorter.

4) Order in the court. There was a lot of pepega going on in the court room, between all the /mes the people walking around, making noises etc. Now a lot of people crashed and then came back so there ended up being a lot of AI's walking around, which I believe could have just been ignored, rather then people going and beating the shit out of them, hitting them with a baton etc, because that just dragged the case on, and caused more distractions. Also just the people doing the /mes that were causing excessive distraction should have just been removed.

Now take this post as you will, I hope that more suggestions and feedback can be given regarding the post, and that eventually the court rp becomes amazing, and more court cases will arise.

 

[Ciggy]

Appreciate the opinions but a few things to go over,

1) As we discussed in the teamspeak channel before the court case started, we were planning to test the voice system and see if it could be used instead of making a teamspeak channel. Throughout the case, we realized that it was not working out. We have already decided to do this in a teamspeak channel for any cases in the future.

2) This situation was brought to the DOJ's attention when you first spoke to me. If you felt as if you hadn't communicated enough with your lawyer then the case could've always been pushed back further. You communicated to us that you would be ready Monday for the case, so we hosted it then.

3) Every lawyer that is involved in the DoJ has knowledge on case law. Depending on what Lawyer it is, some have more knowledge than others. Every lawyer will have objections against them, but there is no such thing as a perfect lawyer. The reason the court case was confusing and not so 'smooth' was the fact that the prosecution and defense had barely any legal grounding. This whole situation should've been handled by LSPD Internal Affairs rather than the DoJ, which I was told the Lawyer tried to advise many times.

4) About the first 45 minutes were smooth, we also have to understand that people sat in there for 2 hours, the /me's weren't really hurting anybody. Anyone who was caught talking, texting or other various distractions were either warned or removed by the bailiffs.

I think for this being our first case and the amount of work that was put into it, it went decently well. There is always improving and there is definitely improvement needed in the court system, which I have had debriefs with all Lawyers involved. We will definitely look into theses suggestions and figure out which will help the DoJ, we appreciate it. The prosecution and defense worked extremely hard to get this case to stand in court due to very little legal grounding that the officer was claimed to commit. We appreciate all the suggestions and concerns.

 

[clapxy]

amen ��FrankerZ
Ciggy

 

[Mouseyy]

I will go ahead and reiterate what I said in the beginning, since it seems to not be understood. These are all suggestions based on the court as a whole, not the court case specifically. So let me address your comments now!

1) First off, I understand this was a trial run, I said that multiple times to you, and to Oblixion as well before and after the court case. If I'm going to post suggestions about the whole situation, I believe that it's important to address everything. The reality was everything was a test, so therefore me saying hey the voice thing didn't work out, is in fact a suggestion of how since it was a test, it can be better done in the future. Anyways moving on from that point.

2) The situation was you posted in the EGO discord the first case would be on Monday, I said uhh who's case was that. Because at that time I was never told my a lawyer, or by you that my case would be held on Monday. So once again lack of communication. Once it was, in the beginning I told you Monday wasn't going to work because I had plans. Now once again this is nobody's fault specifically, but my original lawyer and I had yet to speak the day of, and weren't able to speak until I realized he would be in a destiny raid until 20 minutes before the case began, which is when I then decided to switch lawyers. At that point everything had already been planned and I wasn't going to say hey let's push it back more, I didn't expect to not be able to talk to my lawyer but 15 minutes before the case had started, had I known this, I would have pushed it back. Anyways moving forward, and then my lawyer leaving mid way through, and me having to explain to a third lawyer the situation, whether he knew some of it or not, is pretty ridiculous in my opinion. But anyways once again communication is important, and it seems as though it was lacking across the board.

3) I don't know why you assumed that I was saying you need to train these lawyers to be perfect, cause the reality is nobody is perfect, not the pd, not anyone. But they need to have knowledge in order to make good court cases, this was a learning experience for all yes, so let's use it as a learning experience, and look at what could have been done differently and been done better. If you're not willing to learn from mistakes, and gain more knowledge then this is just going to fail cause it's going to be the same shit every time.

4) I mean obviously people were bothered by the /mes cause it got brought up in ooc multiple times to stop with the /mes, so I'm not really sure where you're basing this "NOBODY" is bothered by it. Once again as it was the first court case, there has to be limitations set or it's just going to get abused and turn into a shit show.

Now I'm going to end this entire suggestion thread with this (and I won't be responding any further), if you're not willing to take suggestions and criticism and use them to your benefit, and examine the roots behind the suggestions, then expect to have these threads made time and time again, until the community believes that it's at a point where court rp is worth it. I could have very well just not gave the court system the rp, filed an IA complaint (which was filed anyways) and saved a lot of my time, but I did this for you guys. Appreciate good rp, whether it ends to fail or not, and take suggestions, that's the only way to improve.

 

[Ciggy]

M Mouseyy

Like I said, we appreciate the suggestions and they will be taken into account. My reply was based of things that were relayed to me from GTA LE, DoJ Members and members of the Emergency Services.

We will keep this in mind.