This analysis of three large COVID-era Awards in favor of customers is provided by Harry Jacobowitz, Esq. He can be reached at harryjacobowitz@optimum.net. The words that follow are his. The unavailability of in-person hearings in FINRA arbitrations since March 16, 2020, has raised the issue of whether telephonic and virtual hearings are sufficient methods for customers to…
This is less a letter from the editor and more your editor’s musings, but I wonder whether we are seeing the start of a tectonic shift on mandatory predispute arbitration agreements (“PDAA”) in the financial services field? For example: As reported in SAAs 2021-13 (Apr. 5), -10 (Mar. 18), & -08 (Mar. 4), new SEC…
AAA Award Data is updated quarterly by the American Arbitration Association. This analysis of the latest update is provided by Rick Ryder, President of Securities Arbitration Commentator, Inc., and by SAC’s ARBchek.com – securities arbitration’s first arbitrator evaluation service. The latest quarterly report from American Arbitration Association adds more than 4,000 new consumer and employment cases to the Association’s…
On the last day for SEC review of FINRA’s latest proposal for improving the expungement process, the Authority temporarily withdraws the rule filing. Just one issue ago, we provided an extensive review of this long-running rule proposal — SR-FINRA-2020-030 — which has its origins in the Dispute Resolution Task Force and its Final Report and Recommendations. We won’t…
As reported in SAA 2021-19 (May 20), the Supreme Court on May 17 granted Certiorari in a case involving application of the “look-through” standard. Here is the promised elaboration. The Court will review Badgerow v. Walters, 975 F.3d 469 (5th Cir. 2020), a case we analyzed in SAA 2020-36 (Sep. 23). In the underlying case, the Fifth Circuit held that…