FINRA DRS Posts Stats Through November. Arbitration Filings Still Up, But Slowing Down

FINRA Dispute Resolution Services (“DRS”) has posted case statistics through November, with trends continuing to show a comparatively strong year in arbitration filings – especially industry cases – and a bit of a recovery in mediations.

We offer these headlines at the year’s eleven-month mark: 1) overall arbitration filings through November – 3,159 cases – are up 30% for the year (was plus 34% in October); 2) cumulative customer claims increased 12% (was the same last month); 3) industry arbitration filings were up 63% (this stat was up 72% in October); and 4) mediation cases rebounded a bit. There were 230 new arbitrations filed in November, compared to 486 new cases in October. As we’ve pointed out before, the DRS forum is quickly becoming dominated by industry cases; almost half (46%) of this year’s arbitration filings are industry disputes.

Continued Decline in Mediation

There were a cumulative 596 mediation cases in agreement, a 17% decrease from 2022. Although this stat ticked up in September and November, it has mostly been declining over the long term. This stat is way down from May 2022’s torrid plus 137% pace. The mediation settlement rate was steady at 85%.

Potpourri

Overall arbitration turnaround times were 14.8 months (a slight decrease), with hearing cases now taking 17.8 months (also a slight decrease). There are now 8,332 DRS arbitrators, 4,121 public and 4,211 non-public. The non-public and overall stats slipped a bit last month. Pending cases stand at 3,457, down 37 from October.

(ed: *If the trend holds, the 3,159 arbitrations filed through November straight-lines to about 3,500 yearly arbitration filings, still a decent year by recent measures. Last year there were 2,671 arbitration case filings for the entire year. The all-time high-water mark was in 2003, when that post tech-wreck figure was 8,945 cases. **Past year stats can be found here.)