Maybe I'm just getting a head start on my "bah humbug" mood for the holidays, I don't know. Did it strike anyone else as discordant that almost a third of the record-setting JPMorgan RMBS settlement was ear-marked to fund "affordable housing / erase urban blight" policy initiatives? Is it right to fund the Administration's social policies through the settlement of civil litigation brought by DOJ? On November 19th, the Justice Department and various state AG's (among others) announced a $13Bn global settlement -- "the largest settlement with a single entity in American history" -- of ...
The SEC announced November 12th that it has entered its first DPA (deferred prosecution agreement) with an individual respondent. In a DPA, the SEC rewards substantial assistance to an important investigation by agreeing not to prosecute so long as the cooperator complies with certain specified undertakings. DPAs are part of Enforcement's Cooperation Program, which adopted a suite of tools that are a long-standing part of the white-collar-crime canon. Those tools include:
- Cooperation Agreements -recommending some credit for substantial assistance;
- Deferred Prosecution ...
PIABA, the securities-investor plaintiff's bar, issued an October 16th press release roundly criticizing industry self-regulatory rules allowing a broker to seek expungement of a customer-claim from her permanent record. PIABA's release relies on blunt statistics showing that about 60% of arbitration awards containing the word "expungement" granted that relief (with a higher 89-96% rate for awards entered on settlements). The group failed to mention, though, 2009 reforms requiring arbitrators to make an affirmative finding (after a hearing) that:
- The claim was ...
In Regulatory Notice 13-40, FINRA announced that the SEC had approved amendments to its Discovery Guide. The Discovery Guide applies to customer cases (rather than intra-industry cases) and outlines presumptively discoverable documents that the parties to an arbitration should exchange without FINRA or an arbitrator intervening. The amendments concern three areas: (1) electronic discovery, (2) product cases, and (3) affirmations. First, the Discovery Guide was amended to clarify that electronic files are "documents" under the meaning of the Discovery Guide and that ...
"Securities regulation and litigation is a field of law that covers various aspects of transactions and other dealings which involve securities or financial instruments. For example, debt securities, such as bonds, and equity securities, such as common stocks, that may be purchased through the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ).
Burr & Forman attorneys have the experience to assist clients in all forms of securities disputes, whether it is a dispute over the suitability of an investment, over a ...