A quirk of the Imperial judicial system is that while the rule of Palaver Forbiddance is strictly applied during the trial itself (forestalling any attempts to engage in fast-talk, irrelevant digressions, questionable metaphysical debates, etc., etc., in the desperate attempt to forestall the verdict), it specifically does not apply to the plaintiff and respondent themselves during the preparation of their case. The Charter specifically guarantees one accused the right to make any statement of explanation or exculpation, and the Curial courts do not, it would seem, wish to give rise to grounds for appeal by the suggestion that anyone was denied the opportunity to make their case.
This can occasionally have unexpected consequences. Consider, for example, the case of Ot mor-Issek.
Ot mor-Issek, a visitor to the Empire, was arraigned in 4180 on charges of battery and corpicide, subsequent to a bar brawl. Evidently fearing the consequences of the case coming to trial and determined to filibuster the courts, mor-Issek remained in a post-arraignment containment oubliette for the next 152 years, while composing possibly the lengthiest respondent statement in the history of the Imperial legal system, filling several million handwritten pages before transcription and requiring the case dossier to be bound in multiple volumes. He eventually conceded that this was impractical and allowed the case to proceed to trial in 4332.
He was promptly cleared of all charges, based on forensic evidence, in a hearing lasting less than an hour.
(The case of the Throne vs. Ot mor-Issek has, it should be said, achieved a certain non-jocular relevance to Imperial law insofar as while it is the practice of the Curial courts to compensate those thus cleared for their costs in money and time incurred, the justices made a special ruling that in this case, they would not be compensating Ot mor-Issek for the full 152 years spent contained, on the grounds that while Palaver Forbiddance did not apply, doing so would constitute a type of "palaver encouragement". They went on to add that while such stubborn parties to cases were hardly common, such a rule would be entirely justified if it spared even one legal secretary the burden of sorting through such an immense collection of childhood recollections, rambling biographical anecdotes, half-remembered parables, family recipes, popular watchvid scripts, poorly-written fanfic, and other such irrelevant padding for padding's sake.)
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://eldraeverse.com/2025/07/25/you-have-the-right-to-remain-silent