Investor and Customer Protection
When an account has lost money in a way that does not look like the market, the question is whether something was sold that should not have been, or handled in a way the rules do not allow.
The practice
Plaintiff-side work, taken where it is needed to protect investors.
Most disputes between a customer and a brokerage firm are arbitrated, not litigated, because the account agreement says so. That usually means FINRA Dispute Resolution: a compressed schedule, a discovery guide rather than open discovery, a panel instead of a jury, and an award that is very difficult to appeal.
This firm’s practice is industry-side — broker-dealers, investment advisers and the people registered with them. Investor claims are the stated exception: plaintiff-side action brought where an investor needs it and the firm is free of conflict.
A losing investment is not a claim. What makes a claim is conduct — a recommendation that did not fit the customer, a concentration nobody explained, a supervisor who had reason to look and did not, a product sold on a description that was not accurate.
Worth knowing early
FINRA arbitration has a six-year eligibility limit running from the events giving rise to the claim, and state statutes of limitation apply separately. Delay is the most common way a good claim stops being one.
Claims
What these cases are usually about.
Why this firm
These claims are answered by the people this firm usually represents.
The industry-side work is on the Arbitration and Litigation and Broker-Dealer Services pages, and it is the larger part of the practice. Knowing how a firm evaluates a claim, what its supervisory file looks like and where its exposure actually sits is what makes an assessment realistic rather than optimistic.
That includes an honest early answer about whether a claim is worth bringing. Not every loss is recoverable, and a case that cannot be proved costs an investor twice.
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