Firms Pay Up When They Play Discovery Games in Promissory Note FINRA Employment Arbitration1/20/2017 Unlike most law firms we at Meissner Associates aggressively seek discovery in all our arbitration cases, so when we encounter a firm like Citizens Securities, the brokerage arm of Citizens Bank, along with their large well known law firm Greenburg Traurig playing games avoiding our discovery demands in arbitration we did what we normally do, we filed a Motion to Compel and fought for sanctions to send the right message from the start. After a hard fought oral argument, on December 21, 2016 we were notified (SEE DECISION BELOW) that we won our Motion and besides being ordered to produce a slew of documents and information to assist our client Citizens was ordered to pay $5000 immediately for attorney fees and for their delay, along with an additional $1,000 per day for every day they failed to produce the requested documents past the given deadline. No doubt the Order sent a message to Citizens and their attorneys that this was not a game and they are already behind the 8 ball in the arbitration in annoying the Chairmanof the FINRA Panel. While winning arbitrations involving promissory notes are not always easy, ones where the broker has valid claims which form the basis for unkept promises of books of business, as this one did, and other carrots to cause a broker to leave one firm to join another which turn out to be false and hurt their careers, are a solid basis to fight back, and it appears this is one of those cases. We continue on with discovery, but do so knowing that our careful arbitrator selection and screening of our client's claims appear to have been on the mark. If you were misled when being recruited and those false promises negatively impacted your career, you may have an independent claim against the firm for damages, in addition to being able to fight against collection of those golden handcuff promissory notes. As in our firm's motto - "one can be David and take on Goliath". Call Meissner Associates, FINRA Attorneys Nationwide Representation for FINRA Arbitrations 212-764-3100 * Prior results cannot and do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter, including yours
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 On Sept 1, 2016 the Hon. Judge Singh of the New York State Supreme Court Commercial Division filed his decision (including the transcript) in favor of Mr. Meissner's client, denying a defendant's Request for an Order to Show Cause to stop our pending multi-million dollar FINRA arbitration claim against him for for allegedly sexually abusing and harassing our client, a 57 year old female representative who has worked in the industry for 17 years and allegedly forcing her to perform oral sex on him while it is alleged he was her supervisor who had hired her in early 2015.
As previously reported on April 14, 2016 the Meissner firm, a nationally recogonized FINRA Arbitration Attorney firm, filed the claim in the FINRA arbitration forum. After Oral argument by Mr. Meissner where the Court summarily denied the defendant's arguments, the parties were sent back to FINRA Arbitration where the case will be heard. The Court held that since the defendant determined to place the issue arbitrability before the Director of FINRA, who then Denied their Motion, in favor of the Meissner Firm's client, and then filed an Answer on the merits, they had participated in the arbitration and cannot then seek a stay of the arbitration, but rather must continue to arbitrate the case before FINRA. Call the Meissner Firm Nationwide - 866-764-3100 for a free phone consultation if you have an employment dispute within the financial industry. Attorney Advertising Past results do not gurantee future outcomes |
AuthorStuart D. Meissner Esq. is an experienced FINRA attorney who has practiced law for over 27 years, including as a FINRA Attorney, Securities Regulator and Prosecutor. Archives
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