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This document is provided
courtesy of the
American Contract Bridge League
2990 Airways Blvd.
S
Memphis TN 38116–3847
901–332–5586
S
Fax 901–398–7754
Also see NABC ACBL Appeal
Casebook
A Club Director’s Guide for Ruling at the Table
Duplicate Decisions
INTRODUCTION
Duplicate Decisions (DD)
has been reformatted into a book that an ACBL club director can use in place
of the official Laws
of Duplicate Contract Bridge.
All of the Laws have been written and presented in everyday English to help
club directors understand their meanings. In addition to the table of
contents, an index which refers to the appropriate Law by topic is available
in the back of this book.
DD can be used to make most of the rulings that will come up during a
typical club game. The ideal way to use this publication is to tab the most
common rulings. Occasionally DD will refer the director to the official Laws
book. In those cases, the director will have to do some research before
making a ruling.
Every club director needs to become very familiar with the Laws in order to
make good rulings. It is helpful to highlight the sections of each Law that
are most frequently used in making a ruling pertaining to that Law. DD
is designed to be used in conjunction with
The ACBL Club Directors
Handbook, which was
published in 2003 and developed to assist club directors in running
outstanding club games. The handbook contains all of the information
previously found in the Appendix to DD plus information that will help club
directors make their club games the best games in town.
The new handbook is a source of tips, ACBL regulations, ACBL programs such
as the IN (Intermediate-Newcomer) Program and New Player Services,
movements, ACBLscore, Alerts, Zero Tolerance, etc. Directors will
benefit from reading the "Ruling the Game" column, which is published
monthly in The Bridge
Bulletin. It’s a good way
to learn more about the Laws and how they should be applied.
ACBL’s web site is also a good source of information that
directors will find helpful in running club games.
Good luck! Let ACBL hear from you whenever you need help.
ACBL Director of Education
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XI — APPEALS
92. Right to Appeal
93. Procedures of Appeal
Director’s Role
Club Appeals Committee
CHAPTER XI — APPEALS
92
Right to Appeal
Contestant’s Rights
A contestant may appeal for a review of any ruling made by the
Director or by any of his assistants.
Time for Appeal
Any appeal for a ruling or an appeal of the Director’s ruling
must be made within 30 minutes after the official score is available
for inspection unless the sponsoring organization has specified a
different time period.
How to Appeal
All appeals must be made through the Director.
Director’s Role
The Director has the opportunity to discourage frivolous
protests but he is not intended to act as a buffer between appellant
and committee, passing along only those appeals he considers
meritorious. He is intended to refer all protests routinely to
committee, although he may, under unusual circumstances, offer
informal, friendly advice to an appellant not to waste his own time
and that of the committee’s.
Concurrence of Appellants
No appeal shall be heard unless both members of a partnership
or the captain of a team concur.
93
Procedures of Appeal
DIRECTOR’S ROLE
The Director shall hear and rule upon all appeals if there is no established appeals committee, when the club has chosen to settle appeals by a
review by the Director — when a committee cannot
meet without disturbing the orderly progress of the
tournament.
CLUB APPEALS COMMITTEE
A club is not obliged to establish an appeals committee.
When a club has elected to allow an appeals committee, an
appeal on a matter strictly of Law or regulation is heard in the first
instance by the Director. An appellant then has the right to carry his
case to committee, but the committee can do no more than attempt
to convince the Director that he is in error, or later take the matter to
the National Laws Commission.
The committee cannot overrule
the Director on a point of Law or regulation.
When there is more than Law at issue, the Director must refer
all other appeals to the committee for adjudication. In matters of
bridge judgment or of disputed fact ( e.g.,
Did a player revoke? Did
his revoke cost his opponents more than the penalty gave them?), the
committee is the final judge.
NOTE: See discussion in Law 83 of
suggested procedures for club
level committees.
Index to Duplicate Laws
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