Once a judge open a crime file for trial it won't time out any more even if the 30 day period ends during the trial. Also, no more new files for the same crime can be filed with the prosecutor. A trial is basically performed in two stages.
As soon as the trial is open, a jury of 5 members from the district's jury pool is selected. If there are not enough PC jurors available, the remaining places are filled with NPCs who will give a random vote. The prosecutor, the suspect and all jurors receive a copy of the file. From now on, the trial is open for two days or until all jurors have voted.
The prosecutor and the criminal should now both submit a statement as described in the prosecutor section. If the prosecutor does not submit a statement, there will be a rumor created about the prosecutor for neglecting his office. There is a two day period during which the jurors can not vote so that the prosecutor and the defendant have enough time to file a statement.
The jurors should wait for the statements and then read them. If they don't read the statements before submitting a their vote, they will receive an XP punishment, otherwise they will receive a XP reward when they transmit their vote. After the initial two day filing period, the jurors have another two days to vote.
During all this time, all crimefile copies have the Trial Tab available that provides the access to the statements as well as the vote buttons for the jurors.
If the jurors come to a guilty verdict, but the main suspect is not the real criminal, the guilty verdict is overwritten by the system. No innocent character can be convicted for a crime he did not commit!
If the judgment was guilty, then the case goes back to the judge again. He now has 2 days to declare the sentence. If he does so, he receives an XP award, if he does not, the system will declare a random sentence within the minimal and maximal sentences for this crime type and the judge will be punished by subtracting XP.
Once a sentence is declared, the case is closed and is handed over to the police system, since now it is about arresting the criminal.
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