Court Cases
Court Cases is a Distraction and Diversion released on 9 June 2010. The quest King's Ransom is a requirement<ref>Mod Nancy. "Blog: Court Cases". 5 November 2009. RuneScape Forums. *</ref>. As of 1 September 2010 you may only do one court case every 14 days from Batch 2 (very rare), while Batch 1 (rare) can all be done with no delays. Note however, that if you do a court case from Batch 1 you must then wait 14 days to do a case from Batch 2.
| “ | 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, 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). Completing all Court Cases is one of the requirements needed to get a trimmed Completionist cape.
WARNING: Giving up a case will mean that the Clerk will take it away. You will have to wait to get another case just like you got the last one. Eventually you will be given this case again. You must complete all 16 cases to get all the rewards.
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; the first court case/starter court case, however, MUST be completed before the player has the ability 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: 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
Gathering evidence
The Case reports obtained from the filing cabinet give details pertinent to the case:
- 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.
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.
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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 - The frog prince is charged with scamming Flora in order to obtain a kiss.
- Sawmill Man vs The People - Will is bringing suit against the sawmill operator for monopolising the wooden plank industry.
- Party Pete vs His Neighbours - Party Pete's neighbour, Ikis Krum, accuses 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 - Miss Schism is charged with slander and interfering with the ongoing investigation into the Draynor Bank robbery.
- EVIL DAVE vs The People - Evil Dave is accused of evilness.
- H.A.M. vs Dorgeshuun - Gamdin is suing H.A.M. for abuse. H.A.M. is counter-suing Gamdin for theft.
- The Sandwich Lady vs The People - The Sandwich Lady is charged with assault with a deadly baguette.
- The Mime vs The People - The Mime is charged with mimicry.
- 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.
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 a reward is not taken, the player cannot get another court case.
| Name | Exp | Other | Net worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mugger | 2,000 | None |  0
|
| River Troll | 3,500 | 20 Sharks |  10,500
|
| Drunken Dwarf | 5,000 | 20 Gold Ore and a Kebab |  4,644
|
| Evil Twin | 6,500 | 5 uncut sapphires | 4,050
|
| Rick Turpentine | 8,000 | 3 uncut rubies | 7,839
|
| Mime | 9,000 | 1 Mystery box and the Faint emote. | 0
|
| Evil Dave | 9,000 | 5 Spicy stews (Court Cases) | 0
|
| Miss Schism | 9,000 | 1 Humble pie | 0
|
| Sandwich Lady | 9,000 | 1 Mystery box | 0
|
| Sawmill Man | 9,000 | 30 Teak Plank | 25,710
|
| Ernest/Professor Oddenstein | 10,000 | 100 Feathers, 15 Red feathers, 15 yellow feathers, 15 Blue feathers and 20 Raw bird meat | 4,285
|
| H.A.M | 15,000 | 100 cave goblin wire, 5 uncut rubies | 108,465
|
| Frog Prince | 9,000 | 1 Mystery box | 0
|
| Party Pete | 9,000 | Rainbow afro | 0
|
| Barbarian/ Wizard | 20,000 | 10 Dagannoth hides and 50 Law runes | 34,570
|
| Gravedigger/ The People | 9,000 | 1 Mystery box | 0
|
| No. of Cases | Weeks | Prize | Date Unlocked | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 10 | 
|
Barrister wig | 9 June 2010 |
| 10 | 20 | 
|
Barrister top | 27 October 2010 |
| 16 | 32 | 
|
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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- When the new cases were released, there was a glitch that allowed players 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.
- 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.
- If you want, you can skip your opponents dialogue at any time by clicking any where in the game. Speak to the judge to continue.
- The court cases follow the adversarial system of court, where the lawyers decide when to call up their witnesses and what to ask them, as opposed to the inquisitorial system, where the judges ask the questions.[1]
References