So I spent last week – the whole week – doing an arbitration with JAMS. It involved some of the typical elements of a FINRA claim, e.g., allegations of the sale of an unregistered security, of an “investment” gone bad, of misrepresentations and omissions in connection with the “sale” of that “investment,” but for reasons
arbitration
PIABA’s New Expungement Study Shows…Nothing Has Changed, Including The Quality Of Customers’ Claims
I have been in a JAMS arbitration the last week or so, so thanks to Chris — Mr. Expungement — for his thoughts about PIABA’s study. – Alan
In a move that surprised nobody, PIABA[1] recently released an updated study on expungement awards from 2019/2020, and, in the most predictable fashion, they continue to…
Are We Looking At The End Of Mandatory Arbitration? That’d Be OK With Me
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…
SEC Not Only Reverses FINRA Disciplinary Action, But Provides Blueprint For Respondents To Use In Their Defense Of Similar Claims
My friend and former colleague, Brian Rubin, publishes annually his analysis of FINRA Enforcement cases, spotting trends in terms of the number and types of matters it brings, the sanctions meted out, etc. It is an excellent tool, and eagerly anticipated by lots of us who practice in this industry. One of the hard parts…
I Am “Investigating” The Fact That Claimant’s Lawyers Use BrokerCheck In A Way FINRA Did Not Intend
I get the fact that anyone silly enough to work for a broker-dealer knowingly chooses to live in a fishbowl. Thanks to BrokerCheck, you can very easily learn more about a registered representative than you can about, say, a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, you name it, all through a couple of mouse clicks. But,…
Another Day, Another Complaint About The Unlevel Playing Field In FINRA Arbitrations
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
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
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
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
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…