Although FINFA received 51 recommendations from a task force designed to improve the arbitration process, it recently announced only a few modest changes to the system. The number of public arbitrators is expanded from 10 to 15 and attorneys can chair arbitrations after participating in one. Also, it will be easier to dismiss arbitration cases that had previously been settled. FINRA explains that these are the first small steps in a larger process. While pleased that change is occurring, Hugh Berkson, president of PIABA is dissatisfied that the system is still viewed as opaque and unfair to investors. “These [changes] don’t begin to touch the underlying transparency issues.” FINRA promises more changes are coming but will they truly fix the underlying problems?
Hugh Berkson is a Securities Attorney with McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman, Co. LPA. Hugh is rated AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell®.
He obtained a business degree in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989, and is a 1994 graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Barristers and received both the American Jurisprudence Award, (National Mock Trial) in 1993 and the Jonathan M. Ault Mock Trial Prize for 1993-1994.
