I have a question about arrest warrants in a Marvel Super Heroes RPG that has both a modern setting and a modern legal system

If a arrest warrant has a minor mistake, which would likely be something like in 1 or 2 places theirs a comma were their should be a full stop, does that minor mistake make the arrest warrant invalid?

My opinion is that it may have a minor mistake but other then that its a legit arrest warrant signed by a judge and that means that whether or not its invalid would depend on what County it happens in but I want to know what others think

Then I had a thought, what do you think of my thought?, my thought is that even a very minor mistake would make the arrest warrant invalid simply because any lawyer could argue that the cops should have checked for spelling mistakes before trying to use a legally invalid arrest warrant

I think you’re in safe ground with thinking a typo with no changes to the narrative wells pass the Bar, uh-hum, as it were but …

You could use the device to wring some great “TV jeopardy” out of the situation and make your players sweat a little.

Mind you - I do NOT have a law degree. However, I did a bit of digging on the 'net, since I was curious myself. According to Commonwealth vs. Leed, it was decided that a simply typo did not invalidate a warrant. I noted that misspelling the accused's name or getting the wrong address would likely get the warrant tossed, however.

Read more about it here: [goldsteinmehta.com]

If typos were that powerful, you'd see some craziness in the legal system. Unless the mistake is significant and such that it would reasonable for a person to believe that the mistake is what was actually intended then simple mistakes will mostly be ignored without consequence. There's simply too much documentation and legal descriptions and writing for everything to grind to a halt over a mistake.

First, the cops are not required to be language police and grammar scholars. It's not on them to read the warrant.

Second, the idea of technicalities getting someone off the hook is a TV trope that I encourage you to ignore.

Third, I'd try to remember this is a game. Let the characters sort this out. If someone has the Law talent, let them make a roll against some sort of intensity determined by you based on the Law rank of the DA (make it up if you haven't thought about it, probably EX: GD reason + Law talent). The character rolling could totally avoid the warrant on RED, stall it on YELLOW, or get the hero out on bail with a GREEN. WHITE means the character tried to help spends 1d10 days in jail. If you want to come up with a narrative description of why the hero/lawyer was able to play the system, go for whatever is fun..."You are looking for Mat Murdok, my name is Matt Murdock. Either I sue you for or you go back and get a new warrant!"

Remember, this is only a stall tactic anyway. They can easily stay on scene while a new, correct warrant is grabbed from the judge.

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barna10
First, the cops are not required to be language police and grammar scholars. It's not on them to read the warrant.

Second, the idea of technicalities getting someone off the hook is a TV trope that I encourage you to ignore.

Third, I'd try to remember this is a game. Let the characters sort this out. If someone has the Law talent, let them make a roll against some sort of intensity determined by you based on the Law rank of the DA (make it up if you haven't thought about it, probably EX: GD reason + Law talent). The character rolling could totally avoid the warrant on RED, stall it on YELLOW, or get the hero out on bail with a GREEN. WHITE means the character tried to help spends 1d10 days in jail. If you want to come up with a narrative description of why the hero/lawyer was able to play the system, go for whatever is fun..."You are looking for Mat Murdok, my name is Matt Murdock. Either I sue you for or you go back and get a new warrant!"

Remember, this is only a stall tactic anyway. They can easily stay on scene while a new, correct warrant is grabbed from the judge.

You said while a new, correct warrant is grabbed from the judge but wouldn't it have been better to put while a new, correct warrant is grabbed from a judge?, after all depending on how long it takes to find the crook the judge that gave the warrant could have finished work for the day

Another possibility is that if the judge had some annual leave booked and it takes the cops a few days to find the crook that the judge that gave the warrant could be on annual leave

Depends how much narrative you want in your game really.
However, it comes down to court when sentencing and the lawyers arguing the mistake.
Cops on the best could care less. Here a paper, your name on it, you're going to jail.
Alias are a thing and even if they issue a warrant for an Alias, you're still going to jail.

Another factor of this whole topic is corruption.

Kingpin could use the system and have it twisted in any way he chooses.