The firm’s client is a national broker-dealer which was a Respondent in a FINRA arbitration where Claimant sought monetary damages of $676,000. He also sought expungement of the disclosure of his involuntary termination and reason for the termination from his publicly available broker-check report. Claimant alleged that his broker-dealer defamed him when it completed the Form U5 indicating that he was involuntarily discharged because he impersonated a client’s relative on a phone call to an insurance company when he was not the client’s relative. Our client argued that the Form U5 was truthful, accurate and subject to an absolute privilege under the applicable law and Claimant was not entitled to recover any monetary damages. After two days of hearings, the panel denied Claimant’s claims in their entirety and found that the Form U5 disclosure was accurate and not defamatory. The panel also ordered the Claimant to reimburse Respondent its $400 filing fee.
Denis Dice, the managing partner of WSSLLP’s Philadelphia office, handled the final hearing.
Douglas Fogle and Jessica Laske, associates in the WSSLLP Philadelphia office, assisted in the preparation for the hearing.
