Here’s a suggestion I’ve been thinking for a while.
I always found it strange that by space law prisoners are not entitled to having a lawyer. In fact the only thing mentioned in space law about lawyers is what they can’t do!
In actual law people have “the right to an attorney” so shouldn’t space law not be the same? I think it would help get rid of the ol’ “lawyers don’t matter and should be ignored” stigma that contuines oh so much.
You might say why even bother? Lawyers really don’t matter! Well lawyers are one of the few roles that rely heavyly on roleplay to do their job and it’s pretty hard to do anything when they aren’t allowed to see someone being detained. The simple adding that “lawyers are entitled to see their detained client if requested” would help so much in allowing some roleplay to happen within the brig.
That being said I don’t expect this idea to be perfect of course but that’s why I’m posting it here, if you can think any problems with it then please I want to hear it!
In Actual Law detectives can arrest and search but similary their purpose of Forensic scanning can by done by a clown so both lawyer and det just sorta there for flavour text and to anoyy the sec team
Yeah that’s true though I can understand why that’s not possible for the game (there’s already a threat about sec validhunting)
Personally I think det’s should be entitled to search warrants depending on the current alert.
I also sadly am aware that a large problem is sec players not wanting to deal with lawyers/dets because of threats or they just want to get rid of the threat asap.
unlike detectives though, lawyers are not really able to validhunt at all. Even if client’s were entitled.
My Experience of Playing Det or lawyer is usually just sec not caring , try to host a Trial ? nobody listens to you and you don’t got access, Actually do host a trial ? nobody shows up, If a detective actually does some independent investigating I’ve found a criminal and multiple times there wasn’t many officers and i was simultaneously ignored by all of them as only when he deswords the captain they notice
If people are entitled to a lawyer and there are no lawyers what happens?
If there’s one lawyer and three perps do we just hold the perps indefinitely until the lawyer gets to them?
I foresee several issues with this idea.
The problem is that more often than not, there is clear evidence for the prisoner committing a crime. No amount of lawyering can change the fact that the assistant was caught breaking into the AI sat loaded with syndicate gear and explosives. So it’s understandable that sec doesn’t let the guy see a lawyer, especially when it just feels like stalling (which it sometimes is)
Perhaps the wording can be changed a little like
“If a lawyer is present, detained personnel are entitled to meet with them”
it would depend if they want legal support or not but I see your point. Unless the three people are part of three different unrelated crimes they could be placed on the same legal case together if not, then yeah that would be problem. I appreicate the foresight though.
This is a lawyer skill issue. Just because you have the gear doesn’t make you a totally syndicate just a dirty contrabander that just happen to fall into the AI sat. I do feel that sec rely too much on AI’s wisdom on if someone broke the law (something that law set usually shouldn’t make AI’s care for).