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Court Cases are a Distraction and Diversion released on 9 June 2010. The quest King's Ransom is a requirement. Players may complete any number of court cases with no time restriction.
| “ | When I wrote King's Ransom over two years ago, we introduced a judicial system to RuneScape, by way of the Seers' Village Court House. It seemed a shame that you only get to use it during the quest and the rest of the time it just sits there. | ” |
— Mod Nancy Distractions & Diversions: Court Cases
|
Overview
Players are able to work on cases in the Seers' Village courthouse, choosing 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, a number of things will need to be done 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 these are read if a coherent case is to be made. Keep a note of all their details to win in the courtroom.
If a case is failed, the jury will return an 'undecided' verdict. The judge will then explain that the player needs to make their case clearer. The player will then be teleported upstairs to the clerk's room. Players will still have all of the necessary case files, and can proceed downstairs to try again as many times as needed until the case is won.
After every successful court case, players are rewarded with an attack XP lamp or a defence XP lamp giving a set amount of experience (depending on whether they chose to prosecute or defend), and some item(s). Completing all Court Cases is one of the requirements needed to get a trimmed Completionist cape. Players can find out which cases they have already completed by talking to the Clerk and selecting the check cases dialogue.
WARNING: Giving up a case will mean that the Clerk will take it away. Players will have to obtain a new summons before they can try again.
Requirements
- Completion of King's Ransom
- Level 65 Attack (for prosecuting) or 65 Defence (Required for King's Ransom)
Getting started
- See the Court summons article for different methods of obtaining court case summons.
After completing the First Court Case/Starter Court Case, the player can obtain a court summons by pickpocketing, monster drops, caskets or clue scrolls. There is NO waiting period to obtain a court summons.
Players may take on their first court case by talking to the clerk in the Courthouse. Afterwards, players will need a court summons through the methods mentioned above.
Note: Only one summons may be held at a time. If the player wishes to do a certain case, they will have to destroy scrolls until they find that specific one.
With a court summons in hand, players can travel to the Seers' Village Courthouse and talk to the clerk to start the case (assuming the summons does not give a waiting period), and decide whether to defend or prosecute.
Before descending into the courtroom via the stairs, players should:
- Check the case file cabinet to get the case reports
- Analyse any fingerprints
- Talk to the relevant witnesses in the temporary jails that have been set up on ground level
Gathering evidence
The Case reports obtained from the filing cabinet give details pertinent to the case:
The courtroom
- 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.
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.
The Jury selection screen as seen normally
Once a player is ready, they may descend into the basement of the court to commence the trial. Cases 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 the choices made were good, inconsequential or severely damaging to 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 him to summarise their case to the jury. A jury member is then be chosen and appealed to 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. There are currently a total of 16 cases.
Batch 1
| Defense | Prosecution | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mugger | Roger Murray | The Mugger is accused of beating Roger Murray unconscious and stealing his recent gambling winnings. |
| River troll | The People | The river troll is accused of littering. |
| Drunken Dwarf | The People | The Drunken dwarf is accused of accosting Botros and throwing rocks at him. |
| Evil Twin | Good Twin | Moira is accused of the theft of Molly's identity. |
| Rick Turpentine | The (Rich) People | Rick Turpentine is accused of mugging Richard Maney. |
Batch 2
| Defense | Prosecution | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The Frog Prince | The People | The frog prince is charged with scamming Flora in order to obtain a kiss. |
| Sawmill Man | The People | Will is bringing suit against the sawmill operator for monopolising the wooden plank industry. |
| Party Pete | His Neighbours | Party Pete's neighbour, Ikis Krum, accuses Party Pete of making noise over the legal limit. |
| Ernest | Professor Oddenstein | Professor Oddenstein is accused by Ernest of unlawfully turning him into a chicken. |
| Miss Schism | Draynor Village | Miss Schism is charged with slander and interfering with the ongoing investigation into the Draynor Bank robbery. |
| EVIL DAVE | The People | Evil Dave is accused of evilness. |
| H.A.M. | Dorgeshuun | Gamdin is suing H.A.M. for abuse. H.A.M. is counter-suing Gamdin for theft. |
| The Sandwich Lady | The People | The Sandwich Lady is charged with assault with a deadly baguette. |
| The Mime | The People | The Mime is charged with mimicry. |
| Barbarians | Wizards | The wizards are seeking reparations for the destruction of the Mage Training Arena during the barbarian invasion. |
| The Gravedigger | The People | The Gravedigger is accused of grave robbing by the families of the dead. |
Rewards
If a court case goes in the players favour, they are entitled to a reward. Players can collect their reward from the clerk on the ground level of the courthouse. The reward received is dependent on the case they took. Players receive a Combat XP lamp (Court Cases) (though strangely herblore is included, as well as summoning, slayer and the usual skills) ranging from 2,000 to 20,000 experience, and items may also be awarded in return for their hard work.
A player is not required to take the rewards at the end of a case. However, while a reward is not taken, the player cannot get another court case.
After completing all the court cases the player will unlock the title [Name] the Detective.
| Name | Exp | Other | Net worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mugger | 2,000 | 1 Mystery box | 0 |
| River Troll | 3,500 | 20 Sharks and 1 Mystery box | 38,660 |
| Drunken Dwarf | 5,000 | 20 Gold Ore and a Kebab and 1 Mystery box | 11,944 |
| Evil Twin | 6,500 | 5 uncut sapphires and 1 Mystery box | 4,045 |
| Rick Turpentine | 8,000 | 3 uncut rubies and 1 Mystery box | 5,526 |
| Mime | 9,000 | 2 Mystery boxes and the Faint emote. | 0 |
| Evil Dave | 9,000 | 5 Spicy stews (Court Cases) and 1 Mystery box | 0 |
| Miss Schism | 9,000 | 1 Humble pie 1 Mystery box | 0 |
| Sandwich Lady | 9,000 | 2 Mystery boxes | 0 |
| Sawmill Man | 9,000 | 30 Teak Plank 1 Mystery box | 11,160 |
| Ernest/Professor Oddenstein | 10,000 | 100 Feathers, 15 Red feathers, 15 yellow feathers, 15 Blue feathers and 20 Raw bird meat 1 Mystery box | 20,540 |
| H.A.M | 15,000 | 100 cave goblin wire, 5 uncut rubies 1 Mystery box | 456,310 |
| Frog Prince | 9,000 | 2 Mystery boxes | 0 |
| Party Pete | 9,000 | Rainbow afro 1 Mystery box | 0 |
| Barbarian/ Wizard | 20,000 | 10 Dagannoth hides and 50 Law runes 1 Mystery box | 88,850 |
| Gravedigger/ The People | 9,000 | 2 Mystery boxes | 0 |
A player wearing the barrister wig, barrister top, and gavel.
| No. of Cases | Prize | Date Unlocked | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 
|
Barrister wig | 9 June 2010 |
| 10 | 
|
Barrister top | 27 October 2010 |
| 16 | 
|
Gavel | 19 January 2011 |
Music
Music unlocked:
NPCs of the cases
Courthouse
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
Trivia
Mod Emilee Confirming the Time Limit on Court cases.
- Court Cases was updated as part of the 26 May 2015 D&D updates, removing the 14 days wait time between cases, adding mystery boxes as rewards for all cases, and changing the experience lamp rewards. Players that has previously completed the Court Cases were not rewarded with the mystery boxes.
- 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.
- 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.
- When the good and evil twins have their fingerprints repeated, both their fingerprints and the one taken from the crime scene are different.
- 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.
- In the River Troll case, if the player chooses to defend, the defendant will summarise 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 Miss Schism vs. Draynor Village case, Miss 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.
- There is a glitch, where you will randomly be doing a case that is not yours and it will count as you doing it.
