The site features a newsletter that's read by nearly all investor lawyers because it's the only publication devoted exclusively to arbitration. Some nonlawyers say that reading Commentator helped them to prepare for the hearing. Aggrieved investors can beef about the arbitration system, but they're stuck with it. Arbitration is used by the brokerage industry to avoid lawsuits. Arbitration allows no right of appeal.
Punitive damages are rare, and there is no jury to impress.
Cases are decided by a three-person panel, one of whose members is involved in the brokerage business. To get even, you need to grab control of the process and stay on the offensive. Roughly 6,000 arbitration claims are filed each year, a number that has held steady since 1995, after big increases earlier in the decade. The issues most commonly fought over involve investor claims of breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation, negligence, churning and unauthorized trading. There are no statistics on settled cases, but from 1992 to 1998 NASD arbitrators awarded about half of the amount claimed.