Staff Legal Relations

The Staff Team and Judiciary shall cooperate in good faith to facilitate investigations, proceedings, and the administration of justice while preserving player privacy and server integrity.

Court Orders

Staff may act upon:

• warrants;
• subpoenas;
• motions to compel;
• judicial orders; and
• other lawful orders issued by a Court.

Specificity Requirement

Court orders must be specific.

Court orders should identify, where applicable:

• players involved;
• locations;
• relevant dates and times;
• items sought;
• purpose of the request.

Staff may deny or seek clarification regarding requests that:

• are overly broad;
• lack a legitimate roleplay purpose;
• require unreasonable staff resources;
• constitute a fishing expedition;
• seek information prohibited under this Policy.

Staff Privilege

Staff privilege recognises the operational independence of the Staff Team from the Judiciary.

Staff shall not be penalised by a Court for actions performed in an official Staff capacity.

Summons

Courts shall not summon individual Staff members.

Courts must summon the 'Staff Team' - not individual staff members.

A ping to @staff is necessary in the government announcement.

A Court shall not hold the Staff Team in contempt.

Confidential Information

The Staff Team may withhold information where disclosure would:

• compromise server security;
• reveal confidential moderation information;
• violate player privacy;
• undermine staff operations; or
• otherwise harm the server.

Staff shall provide information in the most limited form reasonably capable of satisfying the Court order.

No Court may compel disclosure of personal identifying information. The Court shall balance evidentiary needs against player privacy when issuing orders.

Chat Logs

Direct Messages

Direct messages, private messages, and group messages are considered private communications.

Staff shall not disclose such communications without the consent of all participants.

Semi-Private Communications

Semi-private communications include:

• Local Chat;
• Murmur Chat;
• Tickets;
• Affiliated Servers.

Such communications may be disclosed pursuant to a Court order supported by reasonable suspicion and sufficient identifying information.

Evidentiary Requirements

Courts should presume staff-verifiable chat logs are authentic unless authenticity is genuinely challenged, upon which a warrant can be granted for staff verification of whose logs are true.

Can I Get Logs?

The malicious faking of someone else's chat logs also falls under Staff's impersonation rule.

Staff Chatlog Decision Tree:

Searches and Seizures

Searches and seizures conducted by Staff require a valid warrant or Court order unless otherwise provided by this Policy.

Staff may execute searches of:

• inventories;
• ender chests;
• supporter chests;
• specific chests;
• specific properties;
• specific locations.

Staff will auto-deny unspecific or unreasonable requests such as conducting unrestricted searches of all assets, properties, inventories, or storage belonging to a player.

Out of Court Records Requests

Block Placement Records

DCT Inspectors may request Staff to provide information on the most recent block placement activity on a plot for the purpose of assessing non-improvement eviction reports. This may be done without a court order.

Block Edit Logs

All other block edit logs, including but not limited to interactions with signs, lecterns, item frames, and similar editable entities, require a valid court order prior to disclosure.

Animal Murder Logs

Animal and Villager death logs may be requested without a court order by a DHS Sergeant (or above), where relevant to an active investigation.

Drop Logs

Drop logs may only be requested with a valid court order. Requests must specify:

• Relevant location(s)
• Time period
• Item(s) involved

Financial Logs

Financial logs, including both personal and business records, may only be requested from the Department of Commerce pursuant to a valid court order.