Richard C Camp

Our divorce settlement took 2 years and an extraordinary amount of effort to reach. Everyone who has seen the settlement describes it as one of the most detailed agreements they have ever seen. Everything was nailed down. The settlement allowed for a few specific items, e.g. Child Support, to be a...rbitrated. Judge Camp is a very distinguished retired Judge. His credentials are impeccable. He is very personable. I thought Judge Camp was uniquely qualified as an arbiter for issues arising out of our divorce settlement. My ex-wife, sought arbitration and to include issues that were not subject to arbitration. Judge Camp agreed these issues were not arbitrateable under the settlement and sought my agreement to expand the arbitration scope, arguing that it would be less expensive for him to hear it than for us to return to court. I declined. During arbitration and over the objections of my attorney, Judge Camp disregarded arbitration rules and procedures. Judge Camp acknowledged that his actions were not consistent with “standard” arbitration but proceeded anyway. After a couple of days of arbitration Judge Camp proposed settlement terms that were inconsistent with the divorce settlement, including “lump sum” child support, which all parties agreed is unenforceable. I declined. We asked Judge Camp to conduct arbitration consistent with the settlement. In his decision, Judge Camp emasculated the settlement. He arbitrarily emancipated my college aged son. He determined child support arbitrarily, literally pulling a number from the air, rather adhering to the settlement or even child support guidelines. Further, He held me accountable for a significant portion of my ex’s legal fees on the basis of my lack of cooperation. Judge Camp is clearly a very capable individual. The challenge with using Judge Camp to arbitrate is that he wants to judge. Judge Camp does not feel constrained by the agreement he is arbitrating or arbitration process and procedures. If you are looking for a good arbiter, I highly recommend you look beyond Judge Camp. If your settlement is not finalized, I urge you not to agree to arbitration. I belatedly learned that an arbiter can essentially do whatever he wants and one’s only recourse is an expensive court battle. Because Judge Camp chose not to arbitrate, we are now locked in an expensive appeal of Judge Camp’s “decision”.