Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Procedures

This page documents the internal procedures of the Arbitration Committee. It should not be edited without the Committee's authorization.

Handling ban appeals

The procedure for handling ban appeals is as follows:

1. The Coordinating Arbitrator or his deputy shall refer all appeals from banned or long-term blocked users received by the Committee to the Ban Appeals Subcommittee.
2. Within a reasonable time of a ban appeal having been referred to it, the Ban Appeals Subcommittee shall recommend a response to the appeal, as established by unanimous agreement among its members. The subcommittee may determine what constitutes a reasonable time for this purpose, which should not be less than 72 hours, nor more than one week.
   • The response may confirm the ban, lift the ban, lift the ban and impose editing restrictions, recommend opening an arbitration case, refer the matter for community discussion, or entail any other action within the authority of the Committee.
   • The response may advise the user that they may request further consideration of the appeal by filing a new request after a specified amount of time has passed, or after satisfying other specified conditions.
   • The members of the subcommittee may communicate directly with the appealing editor, the blocking administrator, or other involved editors, at its discretion.
   • Should the subcommittee require an extended period of time to provide a recommendation, it shall advise the Committee of this, and provide a date on which they expect a recommendation to be ready.
3. If no arbitrator objects to the subcommittee's recommendation within 48 hours of it having been posted, the subcommittee shall issue the recommended response in the name of the Committee. If any arbitrator objects before the deadline, the response shall be brought before the entire Committee.
4. Should the Subcommittee be unable to arrive at a unanimous recommendation, the matter shall be brought before the entire Committee.

An arbitrator's service on the Ban Appeals Subcommittee is part of his or her official service as an arbitrator, and therefore shall not consitute grounds for recusal in a subsequent matter involving an editor whose appeal was considered by the subcommittee.

Handling incoming mail

The procedure for handling incoming mail to arbcom-l is as follows:

Once incoming mail has cleared list moderation, each message shall be processed by the Coordinating Arbitrator or his deputy within 24 hours of receipt:

1. Appeals of bans shall be acknowledged with a standard message outlining the ban appeal procedure and flagged for further action by the Ban Appeals Subcommittee.
2. Notifications of secondary and alternate accounts shall be recorded on the private wiki and acknowledged with a standard message; no further action shall be taken unless requested by an arbitrator.
3. Submissions of private evidence in an open case shall be recorded on the private wiki and acknowledged with a standard message; no further action shall be taken unless requested by an arbitrator.
4. All other messages shall be acknowledged with a standard message and flagged for further action by the Committee.

All incoming mail, unless obviously frivolous, shall be tracked on the coordination page of the private wiki, and the Coordinating Arbitrator or his deputy shall circulate weekly summaries of all open items.