APPEALS PROCEDURE
RIGHT TO APPEAL
A contestant or his captain may appeal for a review of any ruling made at the table by the Director
The right to request an appeal on a Director’s ruling expires 30 minutes after the official score has been made available for inspection at the Club. No appeal outside the time limit will be considered.
All appeals shall be made through the Director.
An appeal shall not be made unless:
- in a pairs event, both members of the partnership concur in making the appeal.
- in a team event, the team captain concurs in making the appeal.
PROCEDURE OF APPEAL
The Director shall hear and rule upon such part of the appeal as deals solely with the law or regulations. His ruling may be referred to the Appeals Committee.
The Director shall refer all other appeals to the committee for adjudication, which will be completed, usually within four weeks. The committee will inform the appellant of the outcome.
In adjudication appeals the committee may exercise all powers assigned by the Laws to the Director, except that the committee may not overrule the Director on a point of law, or an exercise of his right to suspend a player.
The committee may recommend to the Director that he change such a ruling.
COMPOSITION OF THE APPEALS COMMITTEE
The Appeals Committee shall consist of three club members, drawn from a panel of five experienced club members, invited by the Club Committee and reviewed annually.
In addition, the Director of the session will be available to give advice on matters of law only.
The Appeals Committee will elect its own Chairman.
The Appeals Committee may, at its own discretion, co-opt other club members onto its Committee if it deems it necessary.
The Appeals Chairman will ensure impartiality, e.g. if an appellant was at the time partnering a member of the Appeals Committee, that partner should not sit on the Committee.
The Appeals Committee will be required to keep its own notes and records of the appeal decision and it will not be bound by any previous decisions.
The Appeals Committee will make its decision within one month of the written notice of appeal being received and communicate to the session Director first involved.
If the Director changes his original decision he will notify the scorer of any amendments necessary and also the Appeals Committee Chairman, who will communicate the decision to the appellant.
Should the Director not change his decision despite recommendations so to do by the Appeals Committee, the Appeals Committee Chairman should communicate to the appellant only that the Committee has met but agreement with the Director involved has not proved possible, and that therefore the appellant is advised to appeal to higher authority (EBU) if still aggrieved.
No reasons of “thought processes” etc. should be revealed to an appellant and the Appeals Committee’s deliberations should remain secret. For that reason, it should not report to Tewkesbury Bridge Club Committee any of its findings, and no member of the Tewkesbury Bridge Club Committee should be a member of the Appeals Panel, except in the capacity of Director or player, and they should not discuss Appeals in Tewkesbury Bridge Club’s main committee.
The Appeals Committee may recommend to the Tewkesbury Bridge Club’s main committee the introduction of penalties for Appeals without merit (usually a refundable deposit) if experience shows this to be advisable.
It is unlikely that the Appeals Panel will need to meet regularly or at all outside of hearing a formal appeal, but that is a matter for them to determine.
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