Standing Orders - Judge Iturgen "jotoho" Bolir

[jotoho]

Scope and Purpose​

This document is intended to provide a resource to both new and experienced lawyers on my expectations and instructions as Judge for any trials, cases and other legal proceedings brought before me. Unless I direct otherwise, all instructions contained herein directly apply to any legal proceeding where I am both the presiding and the only judicial officer on the bench. Other Courts and other Judicial Officers may elect to handle their proceedings differently.
All parties and participants are expected and presumed to be aware of these Standing Orders and are automatically considered to be formally on notice.
Should circumstances in a specific legal proceedings appear to warrant it, I may choose to depart from these Standing Orders, by giving alternate instructions or orders in advance.

On Motions and Objections​

Each party may make Motions and Objections at-will, provided that they are both appropriate and necessary. All parties are reminded to be mindful of the Court's and the opposing party's time.

In the interests of Judicial Economy, parties may file a response to a motion or objection filed by the opposing party immediately, without a separate invitation from the Court, under the condition that the Writ of Summons to the Defendant (or equivalent) must have already been previously sent by the Court.

Newly submitted motions and objections whose result may substantially impact the current stage of Case Structure or terminate the case early, suspend case structure and any previously issued associated deadlines until they are resolved, leading to a new deadline being assigned by the Court after ruling on the matter.
Motions and objections whose resolution is not required for the performance of the current stage of Case Structure do not pause previously assigned case structure deadlines.
If a party is unsure if a motion or objection delays deadlines, they are encouraged to request clarification from the Court.

On Witness Examination​

Prior to witness examination, both parties shall provide the Court with the list of their desired witnesses, which is to include for each witness:

• their in-game username
• their legal (RP) name
• the reason(s) for requesting that witness be summoned

Should either or both parties fail to submit their list of desired witnesses on time, the Court may presume that said party does not wish to summon any witnesses, and proceed to the next step. This results in the permanent forfeiture of the right to summon witnesses in that proceeding.

Each witness will be examined first by the party which requested their summoning, then by the opposing party. If both parties requested the summoning of a specific witness, the Plaintiff (or equivalent) goes first. Multiple witnesses may be examined concurrently, at the discretion of the Court.

During Witness Examination, the questioning party has 48 hours to present questions, including follow-up questions, to their witness. Any motions or objections raised will pause this timer until the Court has ruled on them. The timer will likewise be paused should the witness fail to answer to questions presented to him within 24 hours, until their answer has been received or the Court orders otherwise.
Should the witness fail to respond to a question within 48 hours of being asked without proper shown meritorious cause, it may be interpreted by the Court as failure to comply and lead to punishment.
If the questioning party has no (further) questions for their witness, they are to inform the Court and yield their remaining time.

On Trial Scheduling​

Both Parties are expected to notify the Court regarding whether they consent to holding the trial in an in-game hearing at the Azalea Isles Courthouse, in full or partially, no later than by the deadline given for the submission of the Defendant's Answer to the Complaint (or equivalent). Failure to do so may result in the Court deciding on your behalf, potentially to your detriment.

Should consent for in-game trial be identified by the Court, scheduling discussions shall occur prior to the stage(s) of Case Structure intended to be held in in-game hearing.

The Court reserves the right to refuse in-game hearings for (parts of) a trial and mandate forum proceedings instead. If possible, reasons will be provided for such a decision.

The Court will attempt to make reasonable accommodations in regards to scheduling of hearings to maximize the chances of as many participants as possible being able to attend. Should any participants not be able to appear for in-game trial, the Court may either reschedule, assign for their participation to instead occur via the forum, cancel/end the in-game hearing early or make any other reasonable adjustment, as the needs of the situation warrant.

All in-game court hearings shall be recorded if possible, with copies or other another reasonable form of access to these recordings provided to each party and the court record.
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On Evidence Submission​

Evidence and Exhibits may be submitted no later than Witness (Cross-)Examination, in order to protect the fairness of Closing Statements. The Court prefers for exhibits to be submitted as early as possible, ideally with the Complaint or the Answer to the Complaint.
If the parties have agreed to an expedited hearing, all Evidence and Exhibits must have been submitted prior to the first Opening Statement instead.

All evidence and exhibits submitted to a legal proceeding shall have short labels in the Format "A-BBB", where A is replaced with a letter identifying the submitting party and BBB shall be a unique identification number, counting up and starting at 001. Any exhibit lacking such a compliant label may be (re)assigned one by the Court.

The following parties and participants are assigned the following identification letters:
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Letter	Party or Participant
P	Plaintiff (in civil matters) / Prosecution (in criminal matters)
D	Defendant
C	Court
W	Witness (should multiple witnesses submit exhibits, their numbering is to each be offset by 100. Example: W-001 from Witness 1, W-101 from Witness 2)
A	Appellant
R	Appellee
E	Amicus Curiae (same labeling rules as for Witnesses)

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Severability​

Should a superior appellate court (unexpectedly) determine that any provision within these Standing Orders is illegal, only the section(s) of these Standing Orders deemed to be in violation shall be invalidated, and if reasonably possible only to the extent necessary to restore compliance.
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On Changes to these Standing Orders​

I may elect, from time to time, to amend or repeal these standing orders. Should I do so, I will endeavor to create a comment in this thread containing a brief summary of any substantial changes.
In-progress legal proceedings may be exempted from recent changes to these Standing Orders, if immediately applying them would risk impermissible unequal treatment of the parties (for example: change in witness examination instructions between Plaintiff's and Defendant's questioning of the witness(es) in a case).
Parties and Counsels involved in litigation in my court are, within reason, expected to regularly monitor or reexamine these Standing Orders for changes.

Signed,
Hon. Judge Iturgen "jotoho" Bolir​