If you’ve incurred investment losses due to your broker or financial advisor’s misconduct or negligence, you may have a claim to recover compensation. You can pursue your claim by filing for arbitration administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA. Get the legal help you need to navigate the FINRA arbitration process and demand accountability from your broker-dealer or advisor by contacting Erez Law, LLC today. We offer free and confidential consultations to prospective clients, during which we will discuss how an attorney who works on FINRA arbitration cases can help you demand accountability and compensation.
How an Attorney Who Works on Arbitration Cases Can Help
FINRA arbitration provides a more streamlined process for resolving claims or disputes with a broker-dealer or financial advisor than traditional litigation. That said, securities disputes often involve complex facts and legal issues that are best addressed with the help of an experienced securities law attorney. A securities industry lawyer from Erez Law, LLC can guide and represent you through arbitration, advocating for your right to financial compensation for your investment losses caused by a broker’s or advisor’s wrongdoing or negligence.
Let our legal team fight for the financial recovery you need and deserve by:
- Conducting thorough investigations into all of your claims to gather evidence we can use to build a compelling case, including brokerage statements, emails, letters, prospectuses, disclosure documents, and stock market records
- Preparing and filing your statement of claim with FINRA so that all your claims are included in the arbitration
- Helping you select experienced and fair arbitrators to preside over your dispute
- Working with leading financial experts to develop compelling arguments to prove your broker’s negligence or misconduct caused your financial losses
- Aggressively negotiating with your broker and their counsel to pursue a settlement that provides you with fair compensation for your losses
- Preparing a case to present to the arbitrators to fight for the financial recovery you deserve if the broker won’t agree to a fair settlement
Our nationally recognized securities law firm has extensive experience handling arbitration proceedings and successful results. You can trust our in-depth knowledge of regulatory issues and laws when pursuing a claim for compensation. Our legal team has over 35 years of experience, including over 50 cases tried in FINRA arbitration and more than $200 million recovered for our clients. We look forward to putting our skills and resources to work for you.
Common FINRA Matters Our Law Firm Handles
At Erez Law, LLC, our lawyers who work on FINRA arbitration cases represent clients who have claims against broker-dealers and brokerage firms, including claims involving:
- Churning: Churning occurs when a broker makes excessive and unnecessary trades on a client’s account to generate transaction fees for the broker rather than as part of a legitimate investment strategy.
- Lack of diversification: Brokers must ensure that a client’s account has diverse investments to prevent significant losses if one investment or sector suffers a significant downturn. Brokers may be financially responsible for compensating a client if they put too much of the client’s investments into a particular company or industry sector.
- Misrepresentation: A broker may engage in misrepresentation when they fail to provide clients with complete, correct disclosures about a proposed investment so that they can make informed investment decisions.
- Negligence: Brokers who provide clients with bad advice through careless mistakes may be liable for a client’s resulting financial losses.
- Fraud: Many customer complaints regard the negligent administration of an account. However, some broker-dealers may involve allegations that an investment advisor intentionally misrepresented investments or concealed information from the client.
- Unauthorized trading: Unauthorized trading occurs when brokers make trades on a client’s account without the client’s knowledge or authorization.
- Unsuitable investments: Broker-dealer firms must use their professional experience to determine a client’s investment goals and financial needs so the advisor can identify appropriate investments or investment strategies to meet them. Clients may have claims against financial advisors who direct them to unsuitable investments, such as recommending volatile investments to a client who prefers safer options.
- Violations of securities laws: Clients may pursue securities arbitrations after suffering financial losses due to brokers’ breaches of state and federal securities laws, such as insider trading or dealing in unregistered securities.
- Breach of fiduciary duty: Under federal and state laws, investment advisors owe their clients fiduciary duties. The Securities and Exchange Commission notes that broker-dealers typically owe only a suitability standard to their clients. However, the line between an investor and a broker-dealer can be blurred in certain circumstances. Fiduciary duties require advisors to place clients’ interests before their own and provide full disclosure to clients. A breach of fiduciary duty is a violation of this responsibility.
Our legal team has considerable experience fighting to recover meaningful compensation for individual investors throughout Florida and the rest of the country. We can help pursue the compensation you deserve through an arbitration proceeding, mediation, or other legal avenue
What Is FINRA Arbitration?
Most brokerage and investment account agreements contain contract provisions requiring arbitration of disputes before (FINRA). FINRA is a self-regulatory association of securities brokers in the United States. FINRA oversees brokers, advisors, and brokerage firms by establishing regulations and standards of conduct. It also provides an arbitration forum to resolve disputes between securities professionals and their clients.
FINRA arbitration is required when investors want to sue their brokerage firms or advisors. Arbitration provisions are included in the contracts investors sign when they open their accounts. FINRA Dispute Resolution administers the arbitration process.
Arbitration functions like a trial, with the outcome of an arbitration serving as a binding ruling that the parties can enforce in court. However, arbitration has several differences from traditional litigation.
First, instead of having a judge and a jury, arbitrations have a single arbitrator or arbitration panel preside over the proceedings and issue a ruling on the dispute. An arbitrator is a neutral third party who the parties select. Furthermore, while judges must issue decisions based on the law, arbitrators do not have to follow legal precedents and may make decisions based on equitable considerations. Arbitrations also have less formal procedures and rules than court litigation. Finally, parties who lose in arbitration have limited appellate rights, since courts can only overturn arbitration decisions when an arbitrator exceeds their authority, ignores material facts, or deprives a party of due process.
The FINRA arbitration process begins when a brokerage or investment firm client files a statement of claim for arbitration with FINRA Dispute Resolution, which serves a role similar to a court complaint. After filing the statement of claim, the broker/advisor and client can select one or three arbitrators (depending on the amount of money sought) from FINRA’s panel of arbitrators to preside over the dispute. FINRA arbitration typically proceeds more quickly than court litigation, with many arbitrations taking nine to eighteen months.
Under FINRA rules, clients have six years from the event giving rise to their claim to file for FINRA arbitration.
Contact Our FINRA Arbitration Attorneys for a Free and Confidential Consultation
If you’ve suffered investment losses due to wrongdoing by an investment advisor or brokerage firm, you may have the option of pursuing compensation through FINRA arbitration. Get experienced legal representation that can guide you through the securities arbitration process by contacting the attorneys at Erez Law PLLC today for a free initial case evaluation to discuss your legal options.
We have a proven track record of protecting the rights and interests of investors harmed by broker-dealer negligence or misconduct. Call us today to learn more.
Our lawyers take cases nationwide, as well as locally in Miami where our attorneys handle Florida FINRA arbitration cases.