Contract Law in Veenhaven

  The Merchants of Veenhaven are well known for their complicated contracts that often swindle outsiders.

The Merchant's Archive

Straatkei district

 Any contract signed in the city must be signed with one copy for each party and one copy to be stored in the grand archive building so it can be used to settle any future disputes. Supervised access is allowed to the archive at a cost of 10 gold per day subject to archivist availability. 

 The head archivist can be bribed to temporarily misplace a contact for 1% of it's value, amend a contract for 2% of it's value, destroy a contract for 5% of it's value or replace a contract for 7.5% of it's value (you must provide your own forgery). Note that the archivist will take the higher value of the original or replacement contract when setting their fee.

 Able to hire its own guards the archive has 8 guards working the day shift and 8 working the night shift, they count as light footmen. 

Head Archivist - Piet Hofstra - Human, Male, 62 - Reserved, Remorseless

Rarely shows emotion, has no interest at those who suffer because of their corruption.

Captain of the Guard - Aaghie Dahm - Human, Female, 31 - Fighter 3 - Sardonic, Observant

Sees everything, does a good job of protecting the archive.

The Civil Courts

Straatkei district

 Three judges over see the civil cases, they rarely find for foreigners and are all corrupt. During the day twenty light footmen serve as guards under the orders of the bailiff of the court.

Head Judge - Geerta Evers - Human, Female, 73 - Terse, Bigoted.

Hates foreign merchants, will find them in contempt for minor issues.

Judge - Jokob Botes - Human, Male, 57 - Florid, Vain.

Can be swayed with flattery, often found at the parties of House Dekker.

Judge - Kees Hals - Human, Male, 52 - Jovil, Greedy.

Newest to the bench, out to fill his pockets as quickly as possible.

Bailiff - Sir Saal de Jongh - Human, Male 29 - Knight 4 - Arrogant, Lazy

Looks down on merchants, has no interest in his job beyond his pay.

Methuen Law Offices

Straatkei district

 Prestigious law firm run by Gwir Methuen (Elf, Female, 279 - Humourless, Connected). High fees, 2-in-6 chance to solve a case favourably without a bribe due to good connections with all important figures of the city.

J. Rumbledance at Law

Straatkei district (hidden)

Joras Rumbledance (Halfling, Male, 33 - Uncouth, Honest) runs a small, messy office with his partner Nonyon (Ogre). Joras does the talking, Nonyon does the thumping. Services affordable. Connected to the Pebbledasher gang which they use for robbery etc in the line of servicing their clients.

Ms. T. Verken Legal Services

Waddendorp district

 Working from her home Truida Verken ( Human, Female, 22 - Idealist, Naive)  offers legal services to the poor of the city, she can often be talked into helping for free with a good sob story and as such is over worked.

Maas & Sons

Geweldig docks district

Large legal practice run by Denys Maas (Human, Male, 58 - Charming, Dishonest) and his 8 sons. The specialise in picking up the legal business of foreigners, promising them success and drawing out cases to get as much money from them as possible. Denys will take bribes from local merchants to intentionally mess up a case.