Over 3000 car dealerships whose franchises were terminated by GM and Chrysler as part of those automakers’ bankruptcy restructurings have until midnight this Monday (Jan. 25) to challenge their termination by filing for arbitration in the American Arbitration Association.  Congress imposed this special arbitration process as part of its Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2010, an omnibus spending … Continue reading Deadline looms for closed GM and Chrysler auto dealers to challenge their termination in arbitration →

On November 5, I blogged (here) about the House Financial Services Committee’s Investor Protection Act and its provision empowering the SEC to enact regulations banning mandatory arbitration in customer-broker account agreements.  In that post, I wrote: “I don’t quite understand the significance of this provision, as I understood that the SEC already has the authority under the … Continue reading Update: Investor Protection Act and Securities Arbitration →

Yesterday the House Financial Services Committee voted to recommend that the full House vote on the Investor Protection Act of 2009, H.R. 3817.  While the focus of the bill is to protect investors through enhanced regulations in the securities industry, one provision threatens to eliminate the mandatory arbitration of customer-broker disputes.   Section 201 of the bill … Continue reading Investor Protection Act and Securities Arbitration →

I just returned from the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association Annual Meeting in Carlsbad, CA, which featured four days of lively and informative panels and breakout sessions for securities arbitration practitioners.   At the opening plenary session, representatives from PIABA, FINRA and NASAA (North American Securities Administrators Association) debated the relative merits of the only securities arbitration forum … Continue reading A Report from PIABA’s Annual Meeting →