This is how the arbitration ends, not with a bang... After presenting his position and witnesses on Thursday, Greg Ruckman withdrew his arbitration case on Friday morning shortly after the start of proceedings. Presenting two supporting witnesses, Ruckman represented himself throughout the day on Thursday, having parted ways with his lawyer last week due to irreconcilable differences, as inferred on his Web site. On Friday morning, shortly before USRowing was to begin their presentation and rebuttal, Ruckman officially withdrew his case.
A USRowing release read as follows:
USRowing is pleased to announce that the arbitration between Greg Ruckman and USRowing has concluded after Mr. Ruckman withdrew his claim on Friday morning. The arbitration panel went on to dismiss all claims with prejudice, which means that the claims cannot be re-filed at a later time. The arbitration panel also went to the extraordinary length of assessing all arbitrator fees and costs against Mr. Ruckman.An inquiry was also made to determine whether Greg might be held responsible for all legal fees, but there is no such provision in New York state law.
"I am glad this is behind us so we can now focus on the upcoming World Championships," said USRowing Executive Director, Glenn Merry. "We look forward to putting this behind us and working toward our goals for the 2008 Olympics in China."
As I understand the arbitration laws from discussions with case lawyers, arbitrators rarely attempt to overrule selection procedures determined by a "panel of experts," but limit their investigation to issues of whether an athlete has clearly been denied a chance to compete, whether by the rule of those procedures, or in the specific events of the case. Despite widespread perception that the arbitration would determine the eternal camps vs. trials question, the case ultimately appeared to distill down to the issue of whether Ruckman had been denied a right to compete this year for the 2005 lightweight men's four. In the end, no judgement was rendered, and the 2005 selection procedures stand as written.
As to fallout from the case, unofficial estimates put USRowing's legal costs in the six-figure range; USRowing officials have stated publicly that this amount will not come directly from the budget for the 2005 Worlds team; however, it does come out of the high performance budget. As for the camps vs. trials issue, according to arbitration lawyers, these issues are intended to be reviewed and determined by the NGB, in this case by the High Performance Committee; future meetings of that body, and the individuals who will petition it throughout the process, will likely find both solace and concern in the events of the past few days, weeks, and months.br>
Meanwhile, the team is to be named on or shortly after August 3, and depart for Worlds on August 20; as ever, good luck to the crews, one and all.