As everyone knows, back in the 1980s, broker-dealers fought hard for the ability to include in a customer agreement a clause mandating that all disputes be dealt with in the arbitration forum, rather than in court. It was not an easy fight, as to require a customer to arbitrate means that certain rights that would
Arbitration
Another Day, Another Complaint About The Unlevel Playing Field In FINRA Arbitrations
By Alan Wolper on
I just read this article – admittedly authored by lawyers, Ethan Brecher and Ana Montoya, whose website provides that one of their three principal areas of practice is representing investors “who have been defrauded by their securities brokers”[1] – that advocates for a new FINRA rule designed “to limit wasteful post-arbitration appeals by brokerage…
FINRA Is About To Make It MUCH Harder To Obtain Expungement – Part Two
By Chris Seps on
Here is the second part of Chris’s blog on FINRA’s effort to make expungement harder and more expensive to obtain. It is remarkable to me just how blatant FINRA has been here in admitting the reasons for the rule amendments. Anyone who thinks that FINRA is a membership organization that actually cares for its members…
FINRA Is About To Make It MUCH Harder To Obtain Expungement – Part One
By Chris Seps on
I apologize for the long break between blog posts, but I have been preparing for a two-week FINRA Enforcement hearing…to be conducted by Zoom! As is typical of most Enforcement cases that go to hearing, the Staff has insisted that — surprise! — my clients be permanently barred. So, while the method of communication will…
Fourth Circuit Opinion Reveals A Fundamental Problem With The Arbitration Process (A Problem That PIABA Exploits): Arbitrators Need Not Do Their Job Well, Or Even Correctly
By Alan Wolper on
As the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals made clear a week or so ago, serving as a FINRA arbitrator seems rather apropos in a world where the score is not kept in kids’ baseball games (to avoid there being any “losers”), and where adults receive medallions celebrating the fact that they are “participants” in…
Federal Judge Rules That While Zoom Arbitrations Are “Clunkier,” They Are Not Unfair
By Alan Wolper on
Carlos Legaspy is a respondent in a FINRA arbitration that was scheduled to go to hearing in August. As with all other FINRA cases, it was subject to a sweeping administrative decision by FINRA to postpone all in-person hearings through the summer, due to the pandemic. As I have noted before, that decision imbued…
A Modest Proposal On The Appropriate Allocation Of Fees In Expungement Cases
By Chris Seps on
A couple of years ago, I complained about PIABA’s effort to make expungement even more difficult to obtain. Well, fast forward to June 1, and, as Chris Seps explains here, the SEC has approved the first proposed expungement rule change from FINRA, one that appears to serve no purpose other than to generate money for…
Can/Should FINRA Hearings Be Conducted Using Zoom?
By Alan Wolper on
I read with interest earlier this week that a judge in Texas conducted a one-day bench trial via Zoom, apparently representing the first time this has happened. I understand that hearings, i.e., matters that involve arguments of counsel, rather than the introduction of evidence through the examination of live witnesses, are often done over the…
If Covid-19 Wasn’t Bad Enough, Just Wait For The Arbitrations
By Alan Wolper on
Forced to sit at home under government-ordered decree, and having finished binge-watching Season 3 of Ozark and Season 4 of Money Heist on Netflix, what’s left to do except prey upon scared investors – particularly seniors – who have been watching the markets not so much fly as plummet? With (perhaps) that very thought…
What Happens When Potential Arbitrators Don’t Answer The Phone
By Alan Wolper on
Posted in Arbitration, FINRA
I think that most lawyers who handle arbitrations, no matter what side of the table they occupy, would agree that one of the most important components of the case – perhaps the most important – is the selection of the arbitrators who comprise the hearing panel. Doesn’t matter how good your case is, either from…