Our law firm specializes in representing investors that have lost money due to financial advisor fraud or negligence. One of the best ways for investors to recover losses is through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration. FINRA is a private corporation that is a self-regulatory organization for financial advisors, stockbrokers, and broker-dealers.
Investors often ask us what is FINRA Arbitration? The FINRA Code of Arbitration Procedure for Customer Disputes governs arbitrations is very similar to civil procedure much like rules of procedures in which parties engage in an independent review of the claims by a FINRA panel. A FINRA arbitration is consist of a panel that might contain one or 3 arbitrators who had been selected by parties. They review the claims and make awards and/or censures to investors in this case for losses. An award is nothing but the final decision which is made by the panel. There is not a minimum or maximum amount for investors to make claims. The process of recover losses through FINRA Arbitration is usually must faster and cheaper than going to a traditional trial.
Based on the complexity of the issues which you have claimed, the number of scheduled parties, the volume of discovery, the time which is needed for the FINRA arbitration process would vary. But an average time to complete the arbitration process would be around one year. But you should make it a point not to go for the FINRA arbitration process all by yourself as you might not be aware of law and rules and regulations. It’s the best idea to hire professional lawyers who would be with you and fight for you as they have enough knowledge about the various legal aspects.
How Do I File a FINRA Claim?
Anyone can file a FINRA claim. It is pretty straight forward, but highly recommend to hire an investment fraud lawyer for the filing of the claim because The process might involve various rules and stages which are mentioned below:
- File a claim and claim an answer: The procedure of FINRA arbitration starts when an individual would file a statement of claim. It might contain various details about the dispute such as the facts and details regarding the dispute, various parties that have been involved, and the type of relief that has been requested. The claimant can also ask for the interest, actual damage and other remedies. They should also pay the filing fee and file a submission agreement. Once they are done with the filing process, it would take the statement of claim from the other parties. The respondent would then have 45 days time in order to answer back to the claims along with the defense and facts for the claim.
- Arbitrator selection and the prehearing conferences: Usually arbitrators will be selected by parties from the arbitrator list which was generated by the FINRA computer algorithm earlier. Various parties and arbitrators would meet for an initial prehearing conference so as to decide on the case scheduling such as the discovery deadlines, evidentiary hearing, motion deadlines, and several other issues related to it. This might actually be carried over the phone so that it would be easy and manageable for everyone.
- Discovery and hearing: In order to prepare for the arbitration hearing the parties would request information and other relevant details from the other party. The parties are requested to cooperate and provide the necessary details to the other parties. When you check for the code of arbitration procedure, you can also find the rules for objecting for the discovery requests. When you check out the format of the FINRA arbitration hearing it would actually be similar to that of the regular trials. It would usually the closing statement, motion, testimony, opening statements, document, presentation of facts, rebuttal evidence, and post-hearing submission. When there is a hearing, the claimants will try to prove their claim while the opponent would try to create a defense system. Both the parties can call the witnesses of the other party and would cross-examine them in this process.
If you are interested in hiring an attorney for FINRA arbitration, you can call at the office number of Haselkorn and Thibaut for their services.
