Litigation

By: Stephen P. Lagoy

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which administers the arbitration program to which brokerage customers must bring their complaints, is considering using arbitration panels comprising all “non-industry” members.  Presently, panels must include at least one industry member among the three-person panel.  The remaining member(s) are “public” (i.e. from outside the brokerage industry).  FINRA is now running a pilot program that allows parties to choose an all-public panel.  This move may be in response to public criticism of FINRA’s arbitration program as being too lenient on brokerage misconduct. For more on the FINRA program and how securities arbitration works, see Forexyard News.

If you would like to know more about arbitration and how it may be used effectively as an alternative to court litigation, please call Stephen Lagoy.

By: Stephen P. Lagoy

After initially indicating that terminated dealers would be reinstated through the federally-mandated arbitration procedure or not at all [see blog post: Chrysler and GM Take Different Approaches to Dealer Arbitration], Chrysler now says that it will offer to reinstate 50 of the 789 dealerships it terminated last year.  The auto manufacturer also indicated that there may be more to come when, in a statement issued on March 26, it said ”discussions to find mutually beneficial alternatives to arbitration with other dealers are under way.”  For more on Chrysler’s changing arbitration posture, see CNN article dated March 3, 2010.

For more information, contact Stephen P. Lagoy.

By: Stephen P. Lagoy

Unlike GM, which has notified more than half of its terminated dealers that they will be offered reinstatement without going to arbitration, Chrysler has announced that dealer reinstatement will occur through arbitration, or not at all.  The key difference in the approaches of the two auto manufacturers may lie in the fact that Chrysler was in bankruptcy at the time it closed down the dealerships.  The present Chrysler Group is a new company which emerged from bankruptcy and never had a business relationship with the terminated dealers.  For more on Chrysler’s arbitration posture see this article on motortrend.com.

For an explanation of how the federally-mandated arbitration procedure works, see our earlier blog post  “GM and Chrysler Dealers Can Arbitrate“.

For more information, contact Stephen Lagoy.

By: Stephen P. Lagoy

General Motors is prepared to proceed with a Congressionally-mandated program that will allow 2000 of GM’s closed dealerships to appeal the closure decision through an independent arbitration process. Dealers who want to file for reinstatement must do so through the American Arbitration Association and commence arbitration by Jan. 25. Under the law, decisions must generally be made by June 14. To read more about this arbitration process, see

http://www.detnews.com/20100108 and http://www.detnews.com/20100109

For information on how arbitration can help you, please contact Stephen P. Lagoy.

By: Stephen P. Lagoy

The President has signed into law a program giving closed auto dealerships access to neutral arbitration if they want to be reinstated. The process begins immediately and is expected to take six and one half months. For more information on how the auto dealer arbitration process will work see:

http://www.autonews.com/article/

For more information on how the arbitration process can work for you and your business, please contact our office.

Stephen P. Lagoy

By: Stephen P. Lagoy

Congress has approved a plan that would allow 2000 terminated car dealers to pursue third party mediation and arbitration with GM and Chrysler with the possibility of being reinstated. For an analysis of this alternative dispute resolution process and its chances of being successful, see http://online.wsj.com/article/.

For more information how mediation and arbitration can work for your business, please contact Stephen P. Lagoy.

Stephen P. Lagoy is an attorney practicing in West Chester, PA. He is a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution and the PA Council of Mediators.

by: Stephen P. Lagoy

Here is an article from the Dallas Morning News on arbitrators that you may find interesting.  For more information on how alternative dispute resolution, mediation or arbitration could help you, please contact our office.

By: Stephen P.  Lagoy

You may find interesting retired Justice O’Connor’s view on arbitration in this excerpt from the August 10, 2009 on line edition of the Wall Street Journal:

WSJ: Has your circuit service affected your views of mediation, arbitration and other alternatives to litigation?

Justice O’Connor: Well, I have been a strong advocate for alternative dispute resolution ever since I was a state court judge. I found a need for alternative dispute resolution and I found it more satisfactory in many cases for the litigants than going to court. For instance, the mediation of a case means that each side gets to meet separately with the mediator and tell him just what they think without objections and interruptions from counsel. They get to tell their story as they want to tell it. And that is so therapeutic for them. The mediator had to get to the nub of it and eliminate the stuff they shouldn’t consider. But in terms of the litigants themselves, we know that very often it is more satisfactory to them to have gone through that process than through an ordinary trial court process. And depending on the circumstances it might be much less expensive. But it depends on the state and the system and the whole ball of wax. It could be just as expensive and just as frustrating. But I think in general terms it’s provided a welcome alternative to litigation.

Read the full article here.

For more information on how arbitration and other forms of alternative dispute resolution could help you, please contact our office.

Stephen P. Lagoy

By: Stephen P. Lagoy

As reported in the National Catholic Reporter Online Edition, several sex abuse cases in the Chicago Archdiocese were recently settled through the use of a Comprehensive Mediation Process. To view the article in the National Catholic Reporter about their successful use of arbitration and mediation, click here.

For more information on how alternative dispute resolution could benefit you, contact our office.

By: Stephen P. Lagoy

One approach to alternative dispute resolution is called “baseball arbitration.” It is patterned after major league baseball’s salary arbitration rule. This is the rule that was saved by then U.S. District Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, when she issued an injunction ending a long player strike in 1995. Under the rule, certain players are eligible for salary arbitration if they and their team owners cannot agree on a contract. Here’s how it works. Each side submits an offer and the arbitrator chooses the one that he or she considers the most fair. There is no middle ground. The arbitrator cannot “split the loaf.” Therefore, baseball arbitration encourages both parties to submit reasonable offers and may be an excellent approach to resolving your dispute. If you would like to learn more about baseball arbitration or any other aspect of alternative dispute resolution, please contact Steve Lagoy.