Court Cases

Court Cases is a Distraction and Diversion released on 9 June 2010. The quest King's Ransom is a requirement. As of 1 September you may only do one court case every 14 days (2 weeks) from Batch 2 (very rare), while Batch 1 (rare) can all be done with no delays.

Players are able to work on cases in the Seers' Village courthouse, where they can choose either to defend their client (requires 65 Defence) or prosecute the accused (requires 65 Attack). Players read a few documents on the background of the case and perform a bit of detective work. When they feel ready, players may start the trial and present all their findings to the jury and argue their case, as the player did in King's Ransom.

To successfully complete a court case, you will need to do a number of things in preparation. All cases come with up to three case reports, for example, which can be obtained from the filing cabinet on the ground floor of the courthouse. It is essential that you read these if you want to make a coherent case. Keep a note of all their details to win in the courtroom.

If you fail at a case, the jury will return an 'undecided' verdict. The judge will then explain that you need to make your case more clear. You will then be teleported upstairs to the clerk's room. You will still have your case files and you can go downstairs and try again. Players there can persevere and thus eventually win every case and get all the rewards.

After every successful court case, players are rewarded with a set amount of experience (either in Attack or Defence, depending on whether you chose to prosecute or defend), and some item(s).

WARNING: Giving up a case will mean that the Clerk will take it away forever.

Requirements

 * Completion of King's Ransom
 * Level 65 Attack (for prosecuting) or 65 Defence (for defending)

Getting started

 * See scroll finder article for different methods of obtaining court cases.

Players may take on their first court case by talking to the clerk in the Courthouse. Afterwards, players will need a court summons that can be obtained by monster drops, pickpocketing or other ways.

Note: You can only obtain one court summons at a time. If you wish to do a certain case, you will have to destroy scrolls until you find that specific one.

With a court summons in hand, you can travel to the Seers' Village Courthouse and talk to the clerk to start the case (assuming the summons does not give you a waiting period), and decide whether to defend or prosecute.

While you can get a summons at any time, you can only complete one court case every 2 weeks. Reading a court summons will indicate how long is left before another attempt can be made.



Before descending into the courtroom via the stairs, you should:
 * Check the case file cabinet to get your case reports
 * Analyse any fingerprints
 * Talk to the relevant witnesses in the temporary jails that have been set up on ground level

Pickpocketing

 * Warriors
 * Knights
 * Paladins
 * Gnomes
 * Heroes
 * Dwarf traders
 * Al Kharid Warriors
 * Guards
 * Warrior Women

Other

 * Fishing caskets (including those from other sources, such as drops or Miscellania)
 * Treasure Trails

Gathering evidence
The Case reports obtained from the filing cabinet give details pertinent to the case:

The Defendant can be spoken to in the detention cells on the ground level of the courthouse. The case reports will state if any questioning is necessary for information before court is in session.
 * Fingerprints (Not present in all cases): The player must correctly match a print taken from the scene to one of three possible suspects, which if correctly matched can then aid in prosecuting or defending cases.
 * Information about the circumstances and evidence of the case.
 * Information about the suspect's background (and any other person pertinent to the case).
 * A crime scene viewing orb may be given, in which case the player gets to examine a virtual crime scene with a magnifying glass to look for evidence.

Once a player is ready, he/she may descend into the basement to the court to commence a trial. The case will normally start with the Prosecution, and then follow with the Defence. Players are advised to carefully select evidence and witnesses, depending on whether they intend to defend or prosecute, which will corroborate with their arguments. The Jury will indicate whenever choices made were good, inconsequential or severely damaged their case.

The Judge presiding over the case can be talked to query witnesses or present physical evidence. If happy with the presentation, players can also talk to the Judge to summarise their cases to the Jury. Jury members can then be focused upon in order to influence their verdicts.

Wearing the ring of charos (a) while hovering the mouse over jury members will show their personal background and interests, rather than simply saying "A member of the Jury". The backgrounds of the Ranger and Cook were slightly altered to give hints for the second batch of court cases.
 * Ranger - "A ranger, he prefers the bow and arrow to all other combat. He's a straight arrow and hates evil doers."
 * Wizard - "A wizard, he researches the mysteries of life and performs magic."
 * Miner - "A miner, works hard all day mining rocks. Likes to party in the evenings."
 * Cook - "A cook, he spends all day making bread and stopping people stealing his cakes. He hates stew."
 * Shady Gentleman - "A shady-looking gentleman. He's likely involved in the criminal underworld."
 * Young Man - "A young man. He's concerned with starting his own business and making money. Also enjoys a rowdy party."
 * Barbarian - "A barbarian. He is sensitive to any disrespect of his culture."
 * Elderly Gentleman - "An elderly gentleman. He's worried about his safety and a rise in crime."
 * Young Woman - "A young woman. She's concerned with the safety of her children."
 * Shady Individual - "A shady-looking fellow. He covers up his face to hide his identity."
 * Desert Dweller - "A desert citizen. She doesn't have much love for mainlanders."
 * Elderly Citizen - "An elderly gentleman. He doesn't like parties or noise."

Cases
The guides for a successful defence or prosecution follow below. Note that there are usually other ways to win the case besides the one presented for each case.

Batch 1

 * Mugger vs Roger Murray - The Mugger is accused of beating Roger Murray unconscious and stealing his recent gambling winnings.
 * River troll vs The People - The river troll is accused of littering.
 * Drunken Dwarf vs The People - The Drunken dwarf is accused of accosting Botros and throwing rocks at him.
 * Evil Twin vs Good Twin - Moira is accused of the theft of Molly's identity.
 * Rick Turpentine vs The (Rich) People - Rick Turpentine is accused of mugging Richard Maney.

Batch 2

 * The Frog Prince vs The People
 * Sawmill Man vs The People - Will would like to set up his own sawmill but Bill, Varrock the sawmill owner and his former employer, believes that Will has stolen his ideas.
 * Party Pete vs His Neighbours - Party Pete's Neighbour Ikis Krum has accused Party Pete of making noise over the legal limit.
 * Ernest vs Professor Oddenstein - Professor Oddenstein is accused by Ernest of unlawfully turning him into a chicken.
 * Miss Schism vs Draynor Village
 * EVIL DAVE vs The People - Evil Dave is accused of many evil doings.
 * H.A.M. vs Dorgeshuun - Gamdin claims that the H.A.M. Group wrongfully imprisoned and assaulted him, based only on his race. H.A.M. allege that Gamdin broke into their sanctum and proceeded to pickpocket its members.
 * The Sandwich Lady vs The People - The Sandwich Lady is charged with assault with a deadly baguette.
 * The Mime vs The People - The Mime was looking for someone to dance with, and a woman caught his eye. He proceeded over to her, just as her partner was arriving. The woman's partner then attacked the Mime, knocking him out. When he awoke, he could not remember anything.
 * Barbarians vs Wizards - The wizards are seeking reparations for the destruction of the Mage Training Arena during the barbarian invasion.
 * The Gravedigger vs The People - The Gravedigger is accused of grave robbing by the families of the dead he cares for while he says he is just getting passing adventurers to help a small mix up.

Rewards
If a court case goes in your favour, you are entitled to a reward. You can collect your reward from the clerk on the ground level of the courthouse. The reward you receive is dependent on the case you took, and whether you defended or prosecuted. You can receive ranging from 2,000 to 20,000 experience in Attack (if prosecuting) or Defence (if defending), and items may also be given to you in return for your hard work.

A player is not required to take the rewards at the end of a case. However, while an award is not taken, the player cannot get another court case.



Music
Music unlocked:
 * Judge and Jury

Courthouse

 * Judge
 * Prosecutor
 * Defender
 * Guard
 * Clerk
 * Alan (scribe)
 * The Jury

Defendants

 * Mugger
 * River troll
 * Drunken Dwarf
 * Rick Turpentine
 * Molly (victim or defendant)
 * Moira (victim or defendant)
 * Professor Oddenstein
 * Will
 * Party Pete

Plantiffs

 * Roger Murray
 * Botros
 * "The People"
 * Molly (victim or defendant)
 * Moira (victim or defendant)
 * Ernest
 * Sawmill operator

Witnesses and Arresters

 * Estate agent
 * Megan
 * Oliver B'Gard
 * Arresting officer

Trivia

 * The "People" in the Drunken Dwarf case is a man named Botros (can be rearranged Robots), who has an appearance that makes him look exactly like a bot. He claims that he was attacked by the Drunken Dwarf while he was skilling, and often talks in leetspeak. When the player is defending in that case, it is revealed (in possibly the biggest example of Jagex breaking the Fourth Wall) that he was AFK at the time of the attack. This is obviously a reference by Jagex to botting, and also references Mod Nancy's previous unsuccessful attempt at a set of Robot Quests.
 * Ironically, you can gain court summons from criminal activities (stealing and murdering).
 * There is a typo in the knowledge base within Court Cases stating: You can receive anything rom 2000xp to 8000xp. Mis-spelling "from" and instead putting "rom".
 * During the trial, if you speak to the Defender, they will say "The Jdge wants to speak with you." A typo of Judge.
 * There is currently an error on the Adventurer's Log where it will say "A court summons was dropped; The case is Mugger (level: 6) VS Roger Murray." even though you did not obtain this case through a drop/pickpocket.
 * The (Rich) People in the Rick Turpentine case is man name Richard Maney (Mr. Maney.) This name, Maney, appears to be a pun on the word Money, which makes sense since Richard Maney does happen to be rich, and making his name Rich Money.


 * Upon release, a glitch took place where the Judge's wig extended in front of his face. This was fixed on 24 June 2010.
 * When you win a case, balloons drop from the ceiling. As prosecutor, you are only able to move between the two squares behind your table. If one lands on either of these squares you can click on it to pop it. As defender, you cannot move at all, but you can click on and pop a balloon if it falls in the square you are standing in. All other balloons cannot be popped.
 * When the good and evil twins have their fingerprints repeated, both their fingerprints and the one taken from the crime scene are different.
 * When talking to Richard Maney about his business, there is a grammatical error. He says "theyre", rather than "they're" when asked about his business.
 * When interviewing Rick Turpentine and selecting to question him about "The gold watch" he says about his father, "For five long years he carried this watch in his back pocket. Then, before he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch." This is very likely a reference to the film Pulp Fiction and the segment "The Gold Watch," where Christopher Walken as Captain Koons relates a similar story about the provenance of the gold watch he is giving to the young Butch.
 * There is a glitch where some party balloons may fall outside the courtroom.
 * Simon Sez may be a pun on the game "Simon says".
 * When the new cases were released, there was a glitch that allowed player to do more than one case every 14 days by going down the stairs without talking to the clerk. Doing this made it impossible to prosecute, though. This is no longer possible.
 * When viewing the viewing orb for Party Pete's case, Megan appears to have orange hair, while in court, she has brown hair.
 * The judge still has the old 'eyes' even after the update.
 * In the River Troll case, if the player chooses to prosecute, the defendant will summarize her case by asking the jury to stop "trolling the troll." This is a pun with the word "troll," which is used by many to represent an action of spamming or otherwise annoying activities that serve no purpose other than annoyance.
 * In the Evil Dave case, there is the option to say about the Evil Stew "It's tasty, tasty, very very tasty". This is a reference to UK adverts for Kellogg's Bran Flakes in the 1980s with the jingle "They're tasty, tasty, very very tasty".
 * When the defence talks to Simon about the cake, he will say 'The cake is a lie', this is a reference to the video game Portal.
 * When investigating the Mis Schism vs. Draynor Village case, Mis Schism is inside the jail cell sitting on her stool. If the player tries to speak to her and she is not directly opposite the player, she will glide towards the player still seated without any animation.
 * When Baba Yaga is called to the stand in Barbarians v. Wizards, she still has the "trade" option underneath her name as it is in her hut instead of merely a "talk" option to question her about the case.