I was just thinking about the awesome and fateful legal battle in Njal’s Saga and the power of the courts when I realized that I felt something was missing from Reign.

Legal Action
Roll: Influence + Treasury
Against: Influence + Treasury (or Sovereignty?)

There are times when two groups are legally accountable to a third and more dominant group. In such situations, companies can appeal to this higher authority through the legal system.

Legal action occurs when one company charges another with some violation of the law that some higher authority enforces. This could be a group of secret judges, inquisitors, the monarch, learned sages, a crime lord, an oligopoly of merchant lords, or all the gathered elders of the clan. The group making the charges, the plaintiffs, may be seeking financial damages for the alleged breaking of the laws or a form of injunction where the courts order the defendant to refrain from or to carry out an act. The goal must be declared at the start of the action.

It is possible in some court system to counterclaim and turn tables on the plaintiff, but doing such counts as another use of the qualities and as a consequence both companies will see both qualities drop by an additional point after the action has been resolved.

The roll:
Dynamic Contest

Consequences
Consequence depend on what the intention of the plaintiff was. If the defendant wins, the charges are dismissed. If the plaintiff wins, their intent is carried out:

Damages: the defendant pays the plaintiff damages. For the next month only, the defendant’s Treasury is reduced by -1, and if the plaintiff has an equal or smaller treasury than their defendant, they receive +1 to their Treasury for the next month. The losing defendant can always refuse, but this could lead to legal conflict with the company that serves as the legal authority.

Equitable Remedy: the defendant is either required to carry out an action or is prevented from doing a particular action (possibly including some company actions). The amount of time depends on the height of the action, the intent of the plaintiff, and the enforceability of the decision by the legal authority. The defendant can always reject the court or deceive the plaintiff and the authorities.

Symbolic Act: Some legal cases may be symbolic and intended to shame, humiliate or shed unwanted attention on a group. In this event, the defendant loses -1 to Sovereignty for the next month.

Show Trial/Fact Finding/Investigative Hearing: This trial is conducted specifically to weaken the power and influence of the defendant, bringing to light their machinations. The losing defendant loses -1 to Influence for the next month.

Raises for this Action:
Bribing, influencing, blackmailing judges and jurors, creating and planting false evidence, spreading rumors and using innuendo, character assassination and using public opinion to prejudge the case, surprise witnesses, stirring speeches, falsified evidence, calling in favors, discovering or fabricating long-forgotten legal precedents, and of course, perjury.

Related Skills:
Student of Law, Lore, Inspire, Intimidate, Perform, Empathy, Scrutinize, Fascinate, Graces, Jest, Lie, and Plead.

Now I’d like to pull off some sort of Counterclaim which makes legal action more risky, where in one case the Plaintiff has charged the Defendant and then the Defendant charges the Plaintiff creating a second concurrent case where the rolls are reversed. It could either be resolved as one case or two, but I’m not sure how to pull this off yet.