Pete Thamel details what to expect for Michigan court trial

The stage is set Friday for a dogfight in court between Michigan, Jim Harbaugh and the Big Ten, at least for their lawyers, as Harbaugh is set to make a plea for why the Wolverine head coach should be allowed back on the sidelines.

Amid the sign-stealing scandal led by now-fired UM staff member Connor Stalions, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti stepped in and suspended Jim Harbaugh for the rest of the regular season as a punishment to Michigan’s program. Well, Michigan and Harbaugh’s teams had warned the conference specifically not to take such action, because as a result, Michigan and Harbaugh have now come after Petitti and the Big Ten in court as the sides await a momentous hearing on Friday.

The hearing will decide whether Harbaugh gets to return to the sidelines, or whether his suspension is upheld and if it was fairly administered in the first place. Basically, was the Big Ten justified in handing out its suspension given the facts? Or, Michigan will also argue that Harbaugh’s absence at games causes irreparable harm to the team.

As for what to expect, ESPN’s Pete Thamel spoke to a retired judge who worked in the Washtenaw County Courthouse, where the hearing is set to take place, and “sat in that bench for 25 years.” Here was what Thamel gleaned from their conversation in regards to the upcoming Harbaugh/Michigan hearing:

“Essentially, for this hearing, the same thresholds are going to take hold for when they tried to get the emergency TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) the other night — and we won’t bore you with all of them, but irreparable harm becomes a big standard here. Again, can you prove irreparable harm?”

Michigan did not get word back on their TRO request before last Saturday’s kickoff as they had hoped. But in regards to the “irreparable harm” claim, Thamel’s retired judge just isn’t sure there’s enough meat on the bone there, especially when the Wolverines were successful without Harbaugh on the sidelines earlier in the year.

“Now, this judge correctly noted that they may have a hard time getting an emergency TRO and prove irreparable harm, and his theory was in part because Michigan football did just fine the first three games of the season without Jim Harbaugh.”

Now, Harbaugh has said he wants to and plans to speak at the hearing, but Thamel isn’t so sure that will happen or be necessary for the court proceedings.

“I think, if this is a pure preliminary injunction hearing, and it’s not 100% certain, talking to people involved in the case, if it is, there’s the ability for each side, so there’s three sides here — Michigan, Harbaugh and the Big 10 — to call witnesses. It is not certain if the judge is going to allow that or not or there’s just lawyers representing the three parties are going to talk and then the judge is going to make a decision off of that.

“So Jim Harbaugh saying he was going to go to the hearing, I think a lot of people interpreted him as maybe he was going to testify. I don’t know. I haven’t seen a whole lot of figures in my 20 years doing this, like testify in court as Jim Harbaugh has talked about thundering in front of a jury.”

However, for anyone imagining that scene, Thamel says there won’t even be a jury for Harbaugh to thunder to, so what’s really the point of him testifying?

“The one thing I’m sure of is there won’t be a jury in this one, so that’s one thing. If you’re Michigan and if you’re Harbaugh’s lawyers, do you want him to take the stand right now and have to testify under oath? Like, is that a distraction? Does that help your case, hurt your case?” asked Thamel. “I don’t know.”

Heading into the hearing, there’s no telling whether this hearing will be mundane and run-of-the-mill or explode into fireworks.

“So I think there is a little ambiguity, again, from talking to people directly involved in the case of whether or not we are going to see a full sort of Perry Mason trial right with witnesses and cross-examination and all that stuff or not. But I would think by mid-afternoon on Friday, that the judge makes some kind of ruling in this and we will know at that point whether or not Jim Harbaugh can coach these last two games.”

The last point Pete Thamel made was that the suspension issue will end when the season ends. Since the Big Ten simply suspended Harbaugh for the rest of the regular season, and didn’t specify a specific game count, it all comes to a head in the next couple of weeks. There’s no pushing the timeline down.

“I’ve said this a few times Rece. The way the Big Ten wrote this kept them out of trouble if the TRO or injunction happens here. They wrote it as the he is suspended for the end of the regular season, so the suspension is not a game suspension which would eventually have to carry over. People had talked about an indefinite suspension going in. Well, they made it extremely definite, so there’s less exposure to them, right. It starts, it ends, everybody tries to move on, was my perceived intent of how the Big Ten wrote that suspension.”