_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FORCED ARBITRATION IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL MORESO FINRA IS NOT AN FAA COMPLIANT FORUM FOR INVESTOR COMPLAINTS TO BE HEARD IN (c) Carrie Devorah:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FORCED ARBITRATION IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL MORESO FINRA IS NOT AN FAA COMPLIANT FORUM FOR INVESTOR COMPLAINTS TO BE HEARD IN (c) Carrie Devorah:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Puzzled why Arbitration is warp speeding ahead in to lives of Main Street?
Don’t be.
Mystery, solved. Not by choice but by design and plan, arbitration is being slipped in to Technology TOS, Terms of Service, and Wall Street issues, in part, because Judges are setting themselves up for cushy post bench retirements once the Judge disrobes, upping the Justices take home pay from what it was, while on the bench, to four, five times, even more, while they sat, day after day, year after year, decade after decade, waiting for their pension and payout. With arbitration set up for ‘life all the bench’ lawyers themselves up for when, the cash comes rolling in.
Except, Arbitration is unconstitutional. This statement is not up for debate. It is a fact.
As far back as the Magna Carta, every man, and woman, is entitled to their day in Court. This not happening. Along came FINRA. Forced arbitration are taking place without the man or woman knowing, contract or contract, the Right the citizen is being denied. Forced arbitration is criminal. Those forcing forced arbitration down citizens throats are, in the least, conspiratorial, and, as it is appearing in the Financial Forum, legally illiterate.
The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the Bill of Rights that was crafted with Purpose in mind. The 10th Amendment, Amendment X was ratified, December 15, 1791. The Founding Fathers took great measure to secure the underpinnings of the Constitution, by design. With intent, Amendment X holds tight together the principles of system of the Government they were creating for the New World. The Founding Fathers stated in no uncertain terms, until these decades of constitutional upheaval that the Federal Government only had the powers the Constitution gave to the Federal Government, keeping at abeyance the rest of the powers. Those remaining powers, the Founding Fathers protected with the Amendment X were given to the people and the States, as applicable.
US Attorneys, attempting to wade through the wheat and chaff of federal legal oversight of Arbitrations conducted by SRO’s looking to see whose law governs, are confIicted with State, Local and Federal Laws that don’t match.
One fact is clear, there are no Federal Laws governing what makes a Forum legal, compliant to host Arbitrations. There are no State Laws. There are no local laws. There is no law required, no License, required to run an Arbitration business. There is an Act, the FAA, Federal Arbitration Act. That is all there is, just an Act.
And then there is FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Don’t know who they are? If you are an investor, you will learn when someone tells you an agreement was signed with your broker/brokerage/or Investment advisor to resolve your dispute within a FINRA arbitration. Except that is not always the case. Count on the FINRA Case manager to not make sure all I’s are dotted or T’s crossed in the processing of an Investors’ complaint. And if there is a problem? Do be sure, FINRA will find one reason or another to explain FINRA’s actions away as to why the Investor is wrong and FINRA right. Forget about the FINRA 88 page manual, FINRA trained arbitrators are to have read and be guided by.
All that said, there are two points that are undisputable. 1- FINRA is a dues paying member league. 2- Investors are not dues paying members of FINRA. Arbitrators trained by a dues paying membership follow the By Laws, Rules and Codes of Procedures of the SRO.
The Federal Arbitration Act states that FAA compliant arbitrations must be neutral. FINRA conducts Arbitrations between Investors and Industry professionals.
The SRO, self regulated organization, operating under its own By Laws, Rules and Code of Procedures cannot, by definition, be neutral. How does this travesty come to be? How does one explain FINRA overseeing Arbitrations with Investors suing Brokers and Brokerages, or, better yet, how does one explain the overwhelming Arbitrations that FINRA runs through FINRA ADR, in every state, in almost 70 American cities, and in MoU, Memorandums of Understanding with foreign countries- including but not limited to, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia and England.
One cant, explain that is. Few, try to. There is alot of ranting, on the Street, railing against FINRA for being a Kangaroo Court without much change being accomplished. That is changing. FINRA President Linda Feinberg announced she is retiring. Abruptly.
Coincidence to revelations coming forth. These matters are only revealed under duress of litigation.
An email from FINRA General Counsel Terri Reicher that sorted, rubic cubed, a bunch of data in to one solid six sided cube, confirming FINRA is many things. Con is the first word that comes to mind. Reicher addressed FINRA’s award letter providing 30 days within which to submit a valid reason for non payment of an award.
Reicher wrote, addressing FINRA’s By-Law, Article VI, Section 3, “The By-Law in question permits FINRA to suspend the licenses of firms and associated persons who fail to pay an arbitration award, unless they present a valid reason for not paying the award. The By-Law does not apply to [investors] because [investors] are not a firm or associated person subject to FINRA’s regulatory jurisdiction. You do not hold a securities license that FINRA could suspend.”
Two sets of standards for Arbitration participants is not FAA compliant. Two sets of standards, a get-out-of-jail-card-free pass to one participant only, the SRO member, is not FAA compliant. That is a con, that FINRA has got away with for years. There is no explanation for how this detail was not addressed before, publicly and loudly.
The definition of neutral is “not helping or supporting either side in a conflict, disagreement, etc.; impartial. The definition of neutral is “not helping or supporting either side in a conflict, disagreement, etc.; impartial. The definition of neutral is same rule(s) for all parties.
FINRA is an SRO, self regulated organization. FINRA is a non profit but not a non profit in the way most people would think. The IRS has 29 categories of eligible non profit status. FINRA’s non profit status is Business League, a league that is required to have members paying dues.
There is no neutrality in a forum where Arbitrators are trained by the Business league, IRS non profit set up with the mission statement “to protect investors.” There is no protecting investors in a forum, defined in FINRA’s own By Laws, Rules and Codes of Procedures, to resolve issues between Brokers and Brokerages. Investment advisors are not in that equation. Nor are investors.
Congress needs a refresher in laws- there are local laws, state laws, federal laws and then there is FINRA. FINRA’s has its own By Laws, Rules and Code of Procedures.
Don’t be surprised if not too many know what or who FINRA is. They should. If they are part of a union, have a pension or invest under oversight or on their own, they will, sooner or later, cross paths with FINRA. By then? It will be too late.
FINRA claims to be conducting 99% of Investor arbitrations, no magic feat when FINRA is receiving suspiciously high keyword search results, consistently ranking top of the page, if not all of the page, even.
Congress is at fault for this alarming trend. Bad laws passed after listening to the same old witnesses, from organizations, year after year, helps Investors understand why things, laws, are not changing, for the Investor’s benefit, that is.
FINRA is not the only DRS/ADR hosting entity. There is JAMS, FedARb and local Bar associations, too. An investors using an Investment Advisor is supposed to be sent, according to FINRA’s By Laws, Rules and Code of Procedure, to a local court or other Arbitration forum.
Spokespersons for the AAA, JAMS and DC Bar stated they do not require lawyers, arguing before them representing clients to produce their bar card. Explanation given, the entities presume the attorney is licensed and truthful about their status to represent Clients and get paid for their time.
A matter that is processed through District Court, is on the public record. A matter that is processed through FINRA is not on the public record. A matter processed through FINRA is off the grid, away from the Public radar. The matter before a FINRA panel, most likely will never hit the Big Time. Investors will be challenged in learning the real truth of their Investment advisor, putting shame to the system officers, lawyers, court.
The District of Columbia, by way of example, has another ‘balance and check’, Rule 49. Rule 49 allows for exceptions. One exception, DC’s Rule 49 allows for is 5 arbitrations. Congress must ask itself how will DC know if a lawyer has participated in 5 or 50 FINRA arbitrations. FINRA does not make public what takes place within the confines of FINRA’s SRO forum. No one will ever know. FINRA will know. FINRA will never tell. FINRA’s got a good scam going for itself, protecting FINRA’s members from the Investing public.
A crime is a crime is a crime not a Preferred unjailed Wall Street criminal v a Main Street criminal, 46, that President Obama commuted sentences of, most, effective 11/2015/.
There is one option only for this Congress to do. Pass some more laws but laws that protect the Investing public, remove FINRA as the sole SRO and make a direct pathway for law enforcement to pluck the criminals that the Securities Act of 1935, and updates, protects, laws that would put the Madoffs in to jail A.S.A.P. not keep them hidden for 50 years under laws that Congress wrote.
1- Congress must require Arbitration and Mediation site hosts be licensed as a profession both in local, state and under federal oversight
2- The law(s) Congress passes requiring licensing of Arbitration and Mediation site hosts must work in tandem, each with the other. The laws must not fight each other or cancel each other out
3- Congress must require lawyers to write their Bar number every place the lawyer’s signature appears to confirm that a lawyer seeking payment for his services from his client is licensed in the jurisdiction the lawyer is appearing in;
4- An out of state lawyer must state, under penalty of perjury, how many arbitrations the lawyer has argued, along with where and when.
5- In fact, the jurisdiction, not the forum, should provide the lawyer with a stamp card that is stamped for each arbitration the attorney conducted, sort of like a Rewards Card coffee drinkers get stamped excepting a full card of 5 does not get a reward. A full card of f
6- Congress must require Arbitration hosts ie. Local Bar associations etc, to research each lawyer participating as an Arbitration or lawyer in an arbitration panel to be researched online to document the attorney licences is active, if alleging to be an attorney
7- Congress cant leave protection of the public up to Judges and lawyers. If Judges and lawyers were all compliant then there would not be a Code of Ethics for each, respectively, to succumb to. Moreso, Judges too often defer to Clerks schooled and lazy enough to search precedence rather than doing the heavy research to understand if, ie. the Federal Arbitration Act that FINRA cites in Investor DRS decisions has no applicability to Investors in that the Act clearly states the SRO oversight is only of broker v brokerage disputes.
8- Congress must require all attorneys in an arbitration to have their law card Xeroxed to be kept on file in the state the attorney is representing a client in- payment or no payment.
9- Congress must require every forum hosting arbitrations to comply with state, federal and local regulations
10- Congress must assure that local, state and federal laws are in cooperation not in conflict, that there should be no need to research or interpret the law.
11- The attorneys representing clients in FINRA arbitrations, and others, must write their Bar number beside their name, on all pages the attorney signs.
12- Attorneys must sign any and all correspondences including the attorneys Bar Card Number, prominent, on the paper. Listen, a bit of bunkhouse logic, if an attorney doesn’t write their Bar Number next to their name? Count your fingers after shaking their hand. You may just have been using an attorney who shaves facts and details.
13- Then, the SRO must turn in to the local Bar, a list of all arbitrations the SRO conducted the week prior, the names of the out of state attorney, along with the out of state attorney’s bar number and the jurisdiction the attorney is licensed in, allegedly, until that fact is vetted.
And that is how Investors will know the Forum their own lawyer brought a dispute to has oversight with or, at a detriment to the Investing public or Technology User..
Congress has to got to get take back the Investors right to be heard in a Court of laws amongst a jury of their peers. Congress has got to make accountability easy for the US Attorney to know when an out0fot0wn attorney is trying to pull a quickie.
Don’t be.
Mystery, solved. Not by choice but by design and plan, arbitration is being slipped in to Technology TOS, Terms of Service, and Wall Street issues, in part, because Judges are setting themselves up for cushy post bench retirements once the Judge disrobes, upping the Justices take home pay from what it was, while on the bench, to four, five times, even more, while they sat, day after day, year after year, decade after decade, waiting for their pension and payout. With arbitration set up for ‘life all the bench’ lawyers themselves up for when, the cash comes rolling in.
Except, Arbitration is unconstitutional. This statement is not up for debate. It is a fact.
As far back as the Magna Carta, every man, and woman, is entitled to their day in Court. This not happening. Along came FINRA. Forced arbitration are taking place without the man or woman knowing, contract or contract, the Right the citizen is being denied. Forced arbitration is criminal. Those forcing forced arbitration down citizens throats are, in the least, conspiratorial, and, as it is appearing in the Financial Forum, legally illiterate.
The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the Bill of Rights that was crafted with Purpose in mind. The 10th Amendment, Amendment X was ratified, December 15, 1791. The Founding Fathers took great measure to secure the underpinnings of the Constitution, by design. With intent, Amendment X holds tight together the principles of system of the Government they were creating for the New World. The Founding Fathers stated in no uncertain terms, until these decades of constitutional upheaval that the Federal Government only had the powers the Constitution gave to the Federal Government, keeping at abeyance the rest of the powers. Those remaining powers, the Founding Fathers protected with the Amendment X were given to the people and the States, as applicable.
US Attorneys, attempting to wade through the wheat and chaff of federal legal oversight of Arbitrations conducted by SRO’s looking to see whose law governs, are confIicted with State, Local and Federal Laws that don’t match.
One fact is clear, there are no Federal Laws governing what makes a Forum legal, compliant to host Arbitrations. There are no State Laws. There are no local laws. There is no law required, no License, required to run an Arbitration business. There is an Act, the FAA, Federal Arbitration Act. That is all there is, just an Act.
And then there is FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Don’t know who they are? If you are an investor, you will learn when someone tells you an agreement was signed with your broker/brokerage/or Investment advisor to resolve your dispute within a FINRA arbitration. Except that is not always the case. Count on the FINRA Case manager to not make sure all I’s are dotted or T’s crossed in the processing of an Investors’ complaint. And if there is a problem? Do be sure, FINRA will find one reason or another to explain FINRA’s actions away as to why the Investor is wrong and FINRA right. Forget about the FINRA 88 page manual, FINRA trained arbitrators are to have read and be guided by.
All that said, there are two points that are undisputable. 1- FINRA is a dues paying member league. 2- Investors are not dues paying members of FINRA. Arbitrators trained by a dues paying membership follow the By Laws, Rules and Codes of Procedures of the SRO.
The Federal Arbitration Act states that FAA compliant arbitrations must be neutral. FINRA conducts Arbitrations between Investors and Industry professionals.
The SRO, self regulated organization, operating under its own By Laws, Rules and Code of Procedures cannot, by definition, be neutral. How does this travesty come to be? How does one explain FINRA overseeing Arbitrations with Investors suing Brokers and Brokerages, or, better yet, how does one explain the overwhelming Arbitrations that FINRA runs through FINRA ADR, in every state, in almost 70 American cities, and in MoU, Memorandums of Understanding with foreign countries- including but not limited to, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia and England.
One cant, explain that is. Few, try to. There is alot of ranting, on the Street, railing against FINRA for being a Kangaroo Court without much change being accomplished. That is changing. FINRA President Linda Feinberg announced she is retiring. Abruptly.
Coincidence to revelations coming forth. These matters are only revealed under duress of litigation.
An email from FINRA General Counsel Terri Reicher that sorted, rubic cubed, a bunch of data in to one solid six sided cube, confirming FINRA is many things. Con is the first word that comes to mind. Reicher addressed FINRA’s award letter providing 30 days within which to submit a valid reason for non payment of an award.
Reicher wrote, addressing FINRA’s By-Law, Article VI, Section 3, “The By-Law in question permits FINRA to suspend the licenses of firms and associated persons who fail to pay an arbitration award, unless they present a valid reason for not paying the award. The By-Law does not apply to [investors] because [investors] are not a firm or associated person subject to FINRA’s regulatory jurisdiction. You do not hold a securities license that FINRA could suspend.”
Two sets of standards for Arbitration participants is not FAA compliant. Two sets of standards, a get-out-of-jail-card-free pass to one participant only, the SRO member, is not FAA compliant. That is a con, that FINRA has got away with for years. There is no explanation for how this detail was not addressed before, publicly and loudly.
The definition of neutral is “not helping or supporting either side in a conflict, disagreement, etc.; impartial. The definition of neutral is “not helping or supporting either side in a conflict, disagreement, etc.; impartial. The definition of neutral is same rule(s) for all parties.
FINRA is an SRO, self regulated organization. FINRA is a non profit but not a non profit in the way most people would think. The IRS has 29 categories of eligible non profit status. FINRA’s non profit status is Business League, a league that is required to have members paying dues.
There is no neutrality in a forum where Arbitrators are trained by the Business league, IRS non profit set up with the mission statement “to protect investors.” There is no protecting investors in a forum, defined in FINRA’s own By Laws, Rules and Codes of Procedures, to resolve issues between Brokers and Brokerages. Investment advisors are not in that equation. Nor are investors.
Congress needs a refresher in laws- there are local laws, state laws, federal laws and then there is FINRA. FINRA’s has its own By Laws, Rules and Code of Procedures.
Don’t be surprised if not too many know what or who FINRA is. They should. If they are part of a union, have a pension or invest under oversight or on their own, they will, sooner or later, cross paths with FINRA. By then? It will be too late.
FINRA claims to be conducting 99% of Investor arbitrations, no magic feat when FINRA is receiving suspiciously high keyword search results, consistently ranking top of the page, if not all of the page, even.
Congress is at fault for this alarming trend. Bad laws passed after listening to the same old witnesses, from organizations, year after year, helps Investors understand why things, laws, are not changing, for the Investor’s benefit, that is.
FINRA is not the only DRS/ADR hosting entity. There is JAMS, FedARb and local Bar associations, too. An investors using an Investment Advisor is supposed to be sent, according to FINRA’s By Laws, Rules and Code of Procedure, to a local court or other Arbitration forum.
Spokespersons for the AAA, JAMS and DC Bar stated they do not require lawyers, arguing before them representing clients to produce their bar card. Explanation given, the entities presume the attorney is licensed and truthful about their status to represent Clients and get paid for their time.
A matter that is processed through District Court, is on the public record. A matter that is processed through FINRA is not on the public record. A matter processed through FINRA is off the grid, away from the Public radar. The matter before a FINRA panel, most likely will never hit the Big Time. Investors will be challenged in learning the real truth of their Investment advisor, putting shame to the system officers, lawyers, court.
The District of Columbia, by way of example, has another ‘balance and check’, Rule 49. Rule 49 allows for exceptions. One exception, DC’s Rule 49 allows for is 5 arbitrations. Congress must ask itself how will DC know if a lawyer has participated in 5 or 50 FINRA arbitrations. FINRA does not make public what takes place within the confines of FINRA’s SRO forum. No one will ever know. FINRA will know. FINRA will never tell. FINRA’s got a good scam going for itself, protecting FINRA’s members from the Investing public.
A crime is a crime is a crime not a Preferred unjailed Wall Street criminal v a Main Street criminal, 46, that President Obama commuted sentences of, most, effective 11/2015/.
There is one option only for this Congress to do. Pass some more laws but laws that protect the Investing public, remove FINRA as the sole SRO and make a direct pathway for law enforcement to pluck the criminals that the Securities Act of 1935, and updates, protects, laws that would put the Madoffs in to jail A.S.A.P. not keep them hidden for 50 years under laws that Congress wrote.
1- Congress must require Arbitration and Mediation site hosts be licensed as a profession both in local, state and under federal oversight
2- The law(s) Congress passes requiring licensing of Arbitration and Mediation site hosts must work in tandem, each with the other. The laws must not fight each other or cancel each other out
3- Congress must require lawyers to write their Bar number every place the lawyer’s signature appears to confirm that a lawyer seeking payment for his services from his client is licensed in the jurisdiction the lawyer is appearing in;
4- An out of state lawyer must state, under penalty of perjury, how many arbitrations the lawyer has argued, along with where and when.
5- In fact, the jurisdiction, not the forum, should provide the lawyer with a stamp card that is stamped for each arbitration the attorney conducted, sort of like a Rewards Card coffee drinkers get stamped excepting a full card of 5 does not get a reward. A full card of f
6- Congress must require Arbitration hosts ie. Local Bar associations etc, to research each lawyer participating as an Arbitration or lawyer in an arbitration panel to be researched online to document the attorney licences is active, if alleging to be an attorney
7- Congress cant leave protection of the public up to Judges and lawyers. If Judges and lawyers were all compliant then there would not be a Code of Ethics for each, respectively, to succumb to. Moreso, Judges too often defer to Clerks schooled and lazy enough to search precedence rather than doing the heavy research to understand if, ie. the Federal Arbitration Act that FINRA cites in Investor DRS decisions has no applicability to Investors in that the Act clearly states the SRO oversight is only of broker v brokerage disputes.
8- Congress must require all attorneys in an arbitration to have their law card Xeroxed to be kept on file in the state the attorney is representing a client in- payment or no payment.
9- Congress must require every forum hosting arbitrations to comply with state, federal and local regulations
10- Congress must assure that local, state and federal laws are in cooperation not in conflict, that there should be no need to research or interpret the law.
11- The attorneys representing clients in FINRA arbitrations, and others, must write their Bar number beside their name, on all pages the attorney signs.
12- Attorneys must sign any and all correspondences including the attorneys Bar Card Number, prominent, on the paper. Listen, a bit of bunkhouse logic, if an attorney doesn’t write their Bar Number next to their name? Count your fingers after shaking their hand. You may just have been using an attorney who shaves facts and details.
13- Then, the SRO must turn in to the local Bar, a list of all arbitrations the SRO conducted the week prior, the names of the out of state attorney, along with the out of state attorney’s bar number and the jurisdiction the attorney is licensed in, allegedly, until that fact is vetted.
And that is how Investors will know the Forum their own lawyer brought a dispute to has oversight with or, at a detriment to the Investing public or Technology User..
Congress has to got to get take back the Investors right to be heard in a Court of laws amongst a jury of their peers. Congress has got to make accountability easy for the US Attorney to know when an out0fot0wn attorney is trying to pull a quickie.