Mandatory Arbitration Lacks Sexiness of Gekko’s Greed Speech, but…

September 29th, 2010. By Kristine B

With Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps just out, you can’t think about securities fraud and financial wrongdoing without thinking about Gordon Gekko and his classic line about greed (it’s good)…but let’s step back from fantasy and consider a bit of reality…

So you’ve invested some money and now you’re concerned that you got some bad financial advice. Or you’re concerned that your financial advisor failed to follow your advice, churned your account or invested your money in stocks that weren’t appropriate for you. Your initial instinct might be to say, “Let’s sue the guy!” but in reality, what you have to say is the less succinct but more realistic, “Let’s file a FINRA arbitration against the guy!” It’s screenplay dialog just waiting to happen, no?

So just what is FINRA arbitration you ask? Well, it’s today’s Pleading Ignorance topic, so here goes… 

Here’s the thing, and it’s the most important thing you need to know. When you signed a contract with your brokerage firm, you almost definitely agreed to a clause regarding mandatory arbitration. This means that if you have a dispute with your broker or brokerage firm, you have to file an arbitration—you can’t file a lawsuit (except in certain conditions, such as in a class action). 

FINRA is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and it basically oversees the financial industry (hence the name). Its members have to agree to mandatory, binding arbitration to resolve disputes. So that means that if you have a complaint against your financial advisor or brokerage firm, you file an arbitration. 

Although it sounds like a downer—you don’t often hear about multimillion dollar awards in arbitration cases—there are some very good points to mandatory, binding arbitration:

1. Arbitration often takes less time than a lawsuit. Lawsuits, from the date the lawsuit is Read the rest of this entry »

When Exactly is a Paid Bill Paid? Bell Canada’s Finding Out

September 28th, 2010. By Hunter West

Up in the Great White North, a class action lawsuit against Bell Canada and its mobile subsidiary Bell Mobility has been settled, with plaintiffs claiming to have been docked late charges for bills they had actually paid before the mandated deadline. 

The amount of the settlement was not disclosed, and as is often the case in such matters the defendant admits to no fault, wrongdoing or obligation—but did agree to take certain actions in response to the class action, filed on behalf of Suzanne Brazeau last April. 

One of those actions is the donation of funds to various charities on behalf of individuals who may have been Bell, or Bell Mobility customers from March 26^th, 2008 through August 9^th, 2009 and may have incurred unjust late charges, but who are no longer customers with the network. 

The lawsuit, and the settlement illustrate the challenges of living in these times. 

Gone are the days when one spouse went out to earn a living, leaving the other to stay at home and run the household—tasks that usually included bill-paying accomplished at a leisurely pace well ahead of the due date, with a postal service unencumbered by cutbacks and downsizing. 

Gone too, are the days when there was basically only one way to pay a bill—by check. 

Today, the options are numerous and varied. Yes, you can write a check and mail it. But you Read the rest of this entry »

No Dorothy, Elmo Doesn’t Like Strangers Attacking Him

September 27th, 2010. By LucyC

See What Happens When You Leave the ‘Hood, Elmo? Poor old Elmo—he certainly isn’t having an easy time of it these days. In addition to having his duet with Katy Perry yanked from the scheduled November 3rd air time of the Street, because Katy was showing a little too much T&A for the PTA, he was attacked at a music store in Winter Park, Florida last week. Just for clarity—he didn’t write the song… 

Apparently the man hired to wear the Elmo suit for an event at Winter Park Village was on his break and went to check out some tunes in a local music store (don’t even go there), when a complete stranger attacked him. But Elmo fought back—broke two of the assailant’s fingers! I like his style! 

The attack was “unprovoked ” according to Winter Park police Lt. Wayne Farrell. “He immediately thought (the man dressed as Elmo) was a threat,” Farrell told the Orlando Sentinel. Farrell called the ensuing struggle a “very physical fight,” with multiple punches thrown. Now that is something I would like to have seen! 

“Elmo got the best of the guy,” Farrell said. And Elmo’s attacker? Taken to hospital to have his fingers mended and undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Maybe that test should be administered to the conscientious objectors of the Street’s video.

In case you haven’t seen the offending Katy Perry video, it’s right up at top.

Gee, Thanks Officer…Lion’s Pose will Help me Get Over that Ticket! While we’re on the Read the rest of this entry »

Segway Company Owner Dead, by Segway

September 27th, 2010. By AbiK

Ok, this one is rife with irony. The type I don’t like writing about. It seems that Jimi Heselden, the man who only recently bought the Segway scooter company—you know, those odd-looking stand-on motorized scooters that look a bit like a pogo stick on wheels—has died. And here’s the eerily ironic part: as a result of driving his Segway scooter over a cliff and into a river.

Now, the cliff was not the great White Cliffs of Dover (approx. 350 ft. high), but a smaller “cliff” that’s located near Jimi Heselden’s estate at West Yorkshire in Boston Spa—for those of you who are wondering where that is, it’s about a three-and-a-half hour ride north of London in the English countryside. And it’s reported at dailymail.co.uk that the drop was about thirty feet from a rocky path–the picture shown there looks more sloping and wooded in nature than a sheer drop. I bring up the nature of the nature (ie, the cliff) not to diminish the severity of the fall, but to draw attention to the fact that a Segway may not be the best vehicle for handling rougher terrain–and clearly there are risks involved in riding a Segway.

The Segway scooter is driven standing up; the driver leans to control the direction it’s going in. And a gyroscope mechanism keeps the scooter upright. The video above gives a sense of not only the contraption itself, but how it must feel to drive one (I haven’t; I also have no desire to).

So according to reports thus far, it hasn’t yet been determined whether Heselden’s death-by-Segway was actually due to a defective Segway, or due to driver error.

Either way, what is known, is that Jimi Heselden was quite a philanthropist who will be missed by many. According to the dailymail, Heselden had given £23 million (over $36 million) to a charity foundation—the Leeds Community Foundation—he set up in 2008. “The organisation helps disadvantaged youngsters, vulnerable elderly people and health improvement projects in the south and east of the city.”

FDA vs Attorneys: Who Really Protects Us?

September 27th, 2010. By janem

There’s always some whining going on about how much money lawyers make from pharmaceutical class actions. But do those whiners ever think about how safe we would be were it not for the lawyers, lawsuits and the courts? Let’s add advocacy and consumer groups too—their actions have also kept us safe from dangerous drugs and their side effects.

Relying on the FDA for post-market surveillance once it has approved a drug reminds me of this old adage: Close the stable door after the horse has bolted. All too often it takes consumers and their attorneys—like a band of Davids against the Goliath drug company—to resolve adverse drug events that occur by underhanded tactics such as off-label promotion and false advertising.  Case in point: the diabetes drug Byetta.

The FDA received reports of adverse health events (kidney problems and pancreatitis) from Byetta users since the beginning of 2005 but they did diddly squat until last November, when in their infinite wisdom, finally said, “Byetta can heighten the risk of kidney problems, including kidney failure, in people suffering from type 2 diabetes.” But not before attorneys were filing class action lawsuits against the manufacturer.

And what about Avandia? In 2007, a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, linked Avandia to a 43 percent increased risk of heart attack, and more than 700 lawsuits—with GlaxoSmithKline agreeing to a $60 million settlement. Yet it took the FDA until September 2010 to severely restrict sales of the drug (sales have been completely suspended in Europe).

And let’s consider Zyprexa. Class action lawsuits alleged that the manufacturer, Eli Lilly and Co., negligently made, marketed and sold Zyprexa without properly warning of the risks prior to June 6, 2007. Eli Lilly paid out approximately $1.5 billion to settle civil and criminal claims alleging illegal marketing—promoting the drug for use in seniors with dementia when it is not approved for that use.

As well, Eli Lilly paid millions of dollars to settle claims alleging the increased risk of diabetes and related health problems, but the settlement does not imply liability or wrongdoing, so are we safer as a result? The drug is still sold, but with the labeling clearly showing diabetes-related side effects. But Zyprexa treats psychosis—how many people with schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder are going to read the label? Attorneys have taken the drug company to court; now isn’t it up to the FDA to take the drug off the market? Or at the very least, the agency should be more diligent with post market surveillance.