Assessors are officers of the Amtrak Federation's Legal Division whose role is to evaluate the performance and attitude of Trackers and assess their readiness and suitability for promotion or transfers. They also play an important role in enforcing the Federation's laws and enacting discipline on those accused of letting down the ideals of the Federation.
All Trackers have to appear before a two-member panel of Assessors every three months at which time their performance is rated and their loyalty to the Federation is assessed. For most Trackers this is a routine formality with no major problems, but some people, such as persistent slackers or malcontents, have been known to fall foul of these assessments and earn demotion, loss of privileges or even an arrest and an appearance before a full Board of Assessors.
A Board is called to judge charges of treason, persistent disloyalty or under-achievement and pass sentence accordingly. A full Board or Court consists of six Assessors led by a President. There is no jury or defence counsel, but the accused can enter a plea of mitigation which can be taken into account and occasionally can result in a more lenient sentence being passed. In the Federation the accused are held to be guilty of something (otherwise why would the accusation have been brought in the first place, since the First Family are incapable of error?), and the best an accused can hope for is mitigating their case to avoid a death sentence.