> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.melonly.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Law
> Set up acts and charges, speeding classes, fine surcharges, licence suspension charges and how prosecution and court work on your CAD.
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## What is the Law Tab?
The Law tab of the CAD admin panel is your community's law book. It holds the charges officers can use, how speeding fines and surcharges are worked out and how records move through court.
Requires the CAD Admin permission. See [Permissions](/CAD/Intro/permissions).
Edits are kept as a draft until you click **Save Changes** (`Ctrl` + `S`). Saved changes go live straight away. The currency symbol, speed units and "Penal Code" term can be renamed in [Regionality](/CAD/Admin/customization/regionality).
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## 🧠Quick Navigation
Build acts and charges, and share or import them.
How speeding fines, points and surcharges are worked out.
The suspension charges officers can use.
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## Acts
Acts are the laws officers charge people under, like a traffic code or penal code. You can have up to 20 acts with up to 1,500 charges each. See [Acts & Charges](/CAD/Admin/law/acts).
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## Speeding
Speeding classes work out the fine and licence points for a speeding charge based on how far over the limit someone was. See [Speeding Classes](/CAD/Admin/law/speeding-surcharges#speeding-classes).
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## Surcharges
Surcharges add a fixed or percentage amount to fines, based on how big the fine is. See [Surcharges](/CAD/Admin/law/speeding-surcharges#surcharges).
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## Configuration
Law Configuration controls time, prosecution and court for your whole CAD.
| Setting | Description | Default |
| - | - | - |
| RP Day Time Scale | RP days that pass in one real day (1 to 365). Applies to jail, suspensions, licence expiry and demerit points. | 7 |
| Case Number Format | The format for court case numbers. Same setting and rules as Case Format in [Sequencer Formats](/CAD/Admin/config/sequencer-formats). | YYYY-MM-###### |
| Auto Prosecution | Applies charges as soon as a record is filed, with no court. | Off |
| Restrict Court Hearings to Charge-Based Records | Civilians can only contest records with charges. When off, they can contest any Police or Law record against them. | On |
| Automatic Conviction Deadline | Real days a civilian has to pay a ticket or request a hearing before it's convicted. 0 means no deadline. Templates can override it. | 30 |
| Criminal Guilty Plea | Lets civilians plead guilty to criminal, bond or summons cases without a hearing. | Off |
| Plea Fine Multiplier | Multiplies the fine on a guilty plea (0 to 10). 0.5 halves it. | 1 |
| Plea Jail Multiplier | Multiplies jail time on a guilty plea (0 to 10). | 1 |
### Auto Prosecution
With Auto Prosecution on, filing a record applies its fines, jail, points and suspensions straight away and closes it. No court hearings are created and bond is turned off.
With it off, records with charges go to court: bond charges create a bond hearing, Criminal or Determinable charges create a trial and Civil-only records become tickets the civilian can pay or contest. See [Law](/CAD/User/law) for how judges handle hearings.
Guilty pleas aren't offered on cases with a Determinable charge. Those always go to court.
If a record mixes criminal charges with civil or speeding charges, the whole record is one criminal case. Record templates can change all of this with Don't Prosecute Charges, Don't Hold or Bond and Summons. See the [Template Editor](/CAD/Admin/template-editor).
### Where Fines Go
| What happened | When the money is taken |
| - | - |
| Auto Prosecution is on | When the record is filed. |
| The civilian pays a ticket in the [Court Hub](/CAD/User/court-dmv-hub) | When they pay. |
| The civilian pleads guilty | When they plead, with the plea multipliers applied. The case closes. |
| A judge convicts | Never automatically. It becomes an unpaid fine until the civilian pays or a judge collects it. |
| The conviction deadline passes with no payment or hearing | Never automatically. It becomes an unpaid fine and the record closes. |
Deadline convictions are checked every few hours, so the unpaid fine can take up to six hours to appear. Paying a ticket doesn't use the plea multipliers.
Jail is a sentence in RP days on the character, separate from being held for bond or trial. A new sentence adds to any time still left.
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