George Friedman

FINRA Dispute Resolution Services (“DRS”) posted case statistics through March with the overall case filing decline unchanged from February, but with a major shift in the underlying details. In brief, the headlines are: 1) overall arbitration filings through the first quarter – 774 cases –  are down 18%, the same as in February; 2) customer claims are now up 6%; 3)…

Our lead Squib in SAA 2021-13 (Apr. 15) reported that margin debt in February grew to a record $814 billion – up dramatically from a year ago – and examined what this might portend for securities arbitration. It prompted a Letter to the Editor from SAA Editorial Board member William D.  Nelson, that we’ve opted…

Margin debt in February grew to $814 billion, up dramatically from a year ago. What this portends for arbitration remains to be seen. Several media outlets reported recently that investor margin debt as recorded by FINRA had grown to record highs. For example, the Wall Street Journal on April 7 reported in an article titled Investors Big and Small are Driving Stock Gains…

The Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) has released a Report concluding that the presence of predispute arbitration agreements (“PDAA”) has definitely impacted servicemembers in consumer and employment matters, but to what extent is not known at this time. The 29-page GAO-21-221, Servicemember Rights: Mandatory Arbitration Clauses Have Affected Some Employment and Consumer Claims but the Extent of…

FINRA Dispute Resolution Services (“DRS”) posted case statistics through February with key metrics starting the year still below 2020’s numbers, albeit improved over January. The Headlines In brief the headlines are: 1) overall arbitration filings through February – 484 cases – are down 18%; 2) customer claims are down 6%; 3) industry disputes are down…

The American Arbitration Association recently amended its rules governing international arbitrations and mediations. Here is a succinct analysis. As reported in SAA 2021-09 (Mar. 11) the AAA’s International Centre for Dispute Resolution (“ICDR”) amended its International Dispute Resolution Procedures effective for cases filed on and after March 1, 2021, unless the parties otherwise agree. As…

The Supreme Court has agreed to resolve a major split on whether 28 USC Section 1782 provides for discovery in aid of private, foreign, commercial arbitration or only covers cases administered by governmental arbitration forums. First, some review from our past coverage. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1782, a party to a matter pending in a “foreign…

The recently-introduced Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act has been published and, as we suspected, it’s very similar to the version passed by the House in the last Congress. We reported in SAA 2021-06 (Feb. 18) that, as we had confidently predicted, the Democrats had reintroduced several bills to curb use of mandatory predispute arbitration agreements (“PDAA”)….

The American Arbitration Association (“AAA” or “Association”) in 2015 created a special unit of dedicated case administrators to process pro se cases. We offer here a synopsis. An AAA arbitrator who had been approached recently to serve on a case shared with us news that the Association has a case administration team to work on cases involving pro…