Fiendish Codex - illegal Faustian Pacts winning the case anyway?

[Conradine]

Only the following two defenses against condemnation
are considered valid:
The mortal was coerced or magically compelled into signing a Faustian pact.
The devil offering a Pact Certain did not provide the
promised benefi ts.
The judge, usually a pit fi end, listens dispassionately to both
sides and rules, as a lawful creature must, according to the law.
The prosecutor and defense advocate must each make three
skill checks: Diplomacy, Knowledge (the planes), and Perform
(acting). The results of all three checks are added together, and
the side with the highest total result wins the case.


There's a problem with this system: since it depends upon the result of skill checks, does it means that it's possible for a devil to win in court even if he blatantly violated the rules ( by torturing / intimidating the victim or by providing no benefits )?
Or, on the other side, to nullify a pact even if the devil followed the rules by the letter?

[Rebel7284]

There might be circumstantial modifiers to each roll. But with enough optimization, looks like it.

[Doctor Despair]

Skill checks can have circumstantial bonuses or penalties added to them, such as actually having a legitimate case or being entirely in the wrong. I wouldn't imagine that these would add up to a point such that a skilled litigator couldn't win a "losing" case against an unskilled litigator, however.

[The Viscount]

Since the skill check stuff follows the stuff about defense, I'm assuming that if your defense isn't one of the 2 allowed defenses that you lose your case. As for a devil being allowed to win the case even if they violated the rules.... This is a court in the nine hells presided over by a devil. It doesn't seem unreasonable that they would twist the law to their benefit and use the intricacies of a corrupt system to exploit people.

[Gusmo]

This seems exactly like real life, you shouldn't expect it to be better in literal hell.