Karl Bayer's Disputing Blog

New Off-Shore Oil and Gas Industry Oversight?

By Beth Graham - October 21, 2010

In a post entitled “Who Will Guarantee the Safety of Off-shore Oil and Gas Facilities?” on Larry Susskind‘s blog, the Consensus Building Approach, he suggests the need for an off-shore oil and gas industry risk management system akin to the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) created after the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island. Although licensing and a variety of other aspects of nuclear power plant operations are managed by fede

US MSHA Unveils Pilot Mediation Program

By Victoria VanBuren - August 26, 2010

Platts reports that the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) just launched a pilot mediation program. Here are the details: Washington (Platts)–20Aug2010/540 pm EDT/2140 GMT US mine safety regulators plan to revert to a speedier mediation process during a 90-day test period starting later this month in an effort to reduce the number of citations appealed by operators. The Mine Safety and Health Administration said Friday it pla

FTC Issues Report on Debt Collection Litigation and Arbitration

By Victoria VanBuren - July 15, 2010

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held five round tables in three cities discussing consumer debt collection litigation and arbitration. (read more here) The agency issued this week Repairing a Broken System: Protecting Consumers in Debt Collection and Litigation and Arbitration, a report containing the findings, conclusions, and recommendations. Chapter 3 of the FTC report addresses debt collection in arbitration: The report finds th

Just Published: “Meaningful Use” Regulation for Electronic Health Records

By Holly Hayes - July 14, 2010

by Holly Hayes The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published on July 13, a summary of the final regulations on “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHR). The full, final regulation is 864 pages and can be found here. The regulation divides the elements required for “meaningful use” into two groups: first, a set of core objectives that are an essential starting point for meaningful use of EHRs and, second, a menu of ad

National Labor Relations Board Issues Guidelines for Employers’ Arbitration Policies

By Victoria VanBuren - July 8, 2010

On June 16, 2010, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a Guideline Memorandum addressing the legal framework to use in employer’s mandatory arbitration policies. The Guideline Memorandum includes the following principles: (1) The concerted filing of a class action lawsuit or arbitral claim seeking to enforce employment statutes is protected by Section 7 of the Act, and if an employer threatens, disciplines or discharges an emplo

SEC Seeks Comments on FINRA’s Arbitration Rule Change

By Victoria VanBuren - June 3, 2010

Via the ADR Prof Blog, we learned that on May 19, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published for public comment a FINRA Rule Change Relating to Amending the Codes of Arbitration Procedure to Increase the Number of Arbitrators on Lists Generated by the Neutral List Selection System. Find the text of the proposed rule change here. The comment period expires on June 16, 2010. All Comments should refer to File Number SR-FINRA-2010-02

IRS Expands Appeals Mediation Procedure

By Victoria VanBuren - October 16, 2009

Effective October 5 2009, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has an updated mediation procedure for cases in the Appeals administrative process. Under Revenue Procedure 2009-44, the IRS expands the types of cases eligible for voluntary mediation and clarifies the cases that are ineligible. Mediation is available for: Legal issues. Factual issues. Certain compliance coordination issues. Early referral issues where agreement is not reached. Issues

NASAA’s Statement on FINRA’s Arbitration Pilot Program Expansion

By Victoria VanBuren - October 7, 2009

To follow up on our recent posts on securities arbitration (available here and here) we thought that you would like to know that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced on October 5, 2009 the expansion of its two-year pilot program that gives investors who are filing claims the option to select an arbitration panel composed of three public arbitrators instead of two public and one non-public. Read more about the pilot progra

Comments to Dan Solin’s Post on Arbitration of Securities Disputes at FINRA

By Victoria VanBuren - October 6, 2009

John Fleming sent us the following comments about our post of yesterday (find the post here): I have a beef with the Solin’s approach. FINRA has a new pilot program that allows customers to choose arbitration panels with only non-industry arbitrators. Guess what? In reality customers and their lawyers are actually choosing to have industry arbitrators on the panels in about 50% of the cases, even when they can exclude them. Privately, lawye

Arbitration of Securities Disputes at FINRA

By Victoria VanBuren - October 5, 2009

Our friend John C. Fleming from Hays & Owens, L.L.P sent us the following post: [update: find John C. Fleming’s comment about this post here] A reader of my blogs sent me an e-mail with a Customer Agreement from a major brokerage firm. She asked me to look it over and tell her if she should sign it. The first thing that struck me was this clause: “Brokerage activities are regulated under different laws and rules than advisory acti