You Won Your FINRA Arbitration – Now How Do You Actually Get Paid

August 3, 2025August 3, 2025 by Luce Lineberry

You Won Your FINRA Arbitration – Now How Do You Actually Get Paid?

Congratulations! The arbitrators ruled in your favor and awarded you damages. But here’s the reality check: winning an arbitration award and actually getting paid are two different things.

Let me walk you through what happens after you win and how to make sure you actually collect your money.

The Good News About FINRA Awards

Most FINRA arbitration awards do get paid. The industry has a strong incentive to maintain the credibility of the arbitration system, so most firms and brokers comply with awards voluntarily.

According to FINRA’s statistics, about 85% of monetary awards are paid within 30 days.

When Payment Gets Complicated

Problems arise when:
– The broker or firm doesn’t have enough money to pay
– The respondent has left the industry
– The firm has gone out of business
– The respondent tries to hide assets

Your Collection Options

Direct enforcement – You can go to court to enforce the arbitration award just like any other judgment.

Asset searches – Investigate what assets the respondent has that could be used to satisfy the award.

Garnishment – In some cases, you can garnish wages or bank accounts.

Professional licenses – FINRA can suspend or bar brokers who don’t pay awards.

Getting Professional Help

Collecting on arbitration awards can be complex, especially if the respondent is uncooperative. An experienced securities attorney like Bob Pearce can help you explore all your collection options and maximize your chances of actually getting paid.

The Bottom Line

Winning your arbitration case is just the first step. Make sure you have a plan for actually collecting your award, because even the best legal victory is worthless if you can’t collect the money.

Personal Injury Lawyers – What Is Negligence

December 20, 2019December 19, 2019 by Luce Lineberry

Personal Injury Lawyers – What Is Negligence

Negligence is a legal concept that anyone who has been injured is likely to hear a lot about. It is central to injury law across the country. Broadly speaking, negligence is a failure to exercise reasonable care. The law likes to talk about reasonableness and pretend that it is a concept that can be described concretely. You can think of reasonable care as the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in the same situation.

car accident lawyers- personal injury — Personal Injury

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The basic idea behind negligence is that everyone should exercise reasonable care when they act, and doing that means taking into account the potential harm their actions could foreseeably cause others. Those who fail to take reasonable care, are liable for the reasonably foreseeable results of their actions. So, for example, if you fail to tie down some furniture in the back of your pick-up truck which then falls out while you’re driving down the highway and hits the driver behind you, you were negligent and responsible for the foreseeable results of your actions. And since it doesn’t take a Stephen King to imagine that driving with loose furniture could be a danger to those behind you, the damages you caused were probably foreseeable.

But often, it’s not so clear whether or not someone was negligent. In that situation, it may take a Court to determine whether a party was negligent and liable for the damage they caused. Injury lawsuits can be fought over liability, damages, or both. If the parties are arguing over whether someone was negligent, they are arguing over liability.

The thing to remember is that when you go out in the world, you are expected to behave in a reasonably prudent manner. Be careful. And watch out for everyone else too. The law may presume that people will act with reasonable care, but you’ll probably be safer if you assume the opposite. Please click on this link @ https://no1-lawyer.com/car-accident-lawyer-in-midland/

Seven Common Mistakes of Business Owners

May 22, 2019April 16, 2019 by Luce Lineberry

Following are seven mistakes that we commonly encounter with business owners. We find that many problems can be avoided if business owners are proactive and consider these guidelines before problems arise.

1. FAILING TO DO BUSINESS WITH A PROPERLY STRUCTURED LEGAL ENTITY.

Sole proprietorship is a disaster waiting to happen. It subjects all of the business owner’s personal wealth to claims and debts associated with the business. General partnerships are even worse. Having a general partnership subjects one partner’s personal assets to claims and debts that might arise from the acts of the other partner! A corporation, limited liability company (LLC) or other properly structured legal entity is a must.

2. HAVING A PROPERLY STRUCTURED LEGAL ENTITY, BUT FAILING TO DO BUSINESS IN THE PROPER MANNER.

Having a legal entity does little good if you don’t respect it. You must conduct the business at arm’s length and scrupulously keep personal assets and affairs separate from business assets and affairs. There are formalities that you must adhere to if you expect the courts to respect your legal entity. Don’t give a potential plaintiff a way to pierce the corporate veil.

3. NOT KEEPING UP ON PAYROLL TAXES.

This may be the single worst sin of a business owner. The penalties and interest associated with failing to remit payroll and trust fund taxes are significant. These tax liabilities cannot be discharged in bankruptcy and become the personal liability of the responsible business officer.

4. NOT PLANNING FOR OBVIOUS EVENTS.

Death is a certainty and disability is always a possibility. Any business owner must have a plan in place to ensure the continued success of the business when he or she is unable to continue working. A business continuity and succession plan is a must.

5. GIVING EMPLOYEES THE KEY TO THE COURTHOUSE.

Litigation can be financially disastrous, even if you win. It can cost tens of thousands of dollars to successfully defend even the most frivolous of lawsuits. Consider having an alternative dispute resolution agreement in place with all of your employees that will avoid court proceedings and resolve disputes in binding arbitration.

6. HAVING A BAD EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK.

A bad employee handbook is much, much worse than no employee handbook. The terms of a poorly written handbook can be interpreted by a court to be a “contract” with the employees that will require you to do things you never intended to do (doing away with at-will employment rules, etc.)

7. NOT HAVING CONFIDENTIALITY / NON-COMPETE / NON-DISCLOSURE and TRADE SECRET AGREEMENTS.

There’s no reason to be in business if you aren’t going to protect yourself from employees becoming your competitors (after you’ve shown them the ropes!). Similarly, there are many instances in the conduct of business where you might unintentionally provide what would otherwise be protected information without an agreement that the recipient cannot use it in competition with you. Protect the information and intelligence that makes your business valuable!

This article was originally written and posted by John Kenney on another one of our websites a few years ago. The information is still very relevant and, because we’re in the slow process of taking down the other web site, we thought it a good idea to bring this one over to this site.