Legal Question in Personal Injury in Massachusetts

Re: Defamation of character causing lossof future wages

I understand why you are so upset. Many financial advisor agreements require that disputes be resolved via mandatory arbitration. Did you go through an arbitration? Were your vindicated? Most people understand that anyone can calim anything. Proving a case and making charges stick is different.

Wherever the ratings are listed you should ask for the opportunity to post your own statement.

There are time deadlines to every sort of case, I can't say which would apply to any potential claim you may have - speak to a lawyer in person about that without delay.

You should also know that the most difficult sort of damages to establish are future profits. What has happened is more suceptible to being entered as evidence - what is likely to happen in the future - more tricky.

Good luck.

Charles W. Cobb

Re: Defamation of character causing lossof future wages

I assume that you are with the same firm you were when the complaint came in. Your firm was requred to report it to the NASD on a U4. You have an opportunity to add your comments via a DRP (Disposition Reporting Page) and you will, essentially, have had last word, in all likelihood. Your comments then go together with the complaint as reported by your firm onto the U4 report to NASD. That's the normal and cheap solution though it does "leave a mark" so to speak.

If you do that, you might want to have what you read checked over by someone else before you submit it because you are forever committed to what you submit -- it will be admissible as evidence against you.

Have someone knowledgeable check over what you write before you submit it because you're very much committed to what you write -- it will be usable as admissible evidence against you.

What precisely was said about you? Do you have a copy of the U4? What is your name and firm? (I can get the report from the CRD.)

What evidence do you have that the accusations are untrue? (Don't worry too much if there's nothing on paper.)

Some reports (this included) are what the NASD would call non-reportable, but that's a misnomer because Massachusetts WILL report these things to anyone who so requests.

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P.S.: "Hinky" market, eh? Phew! Have you seen 3com lately?

Re: Defamation of character causing lossof future wages

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There are more exotic possibilities: you can go to court and get an order from the court to have the firm revise the U4 on your behalf; you can also ask the court to order NASD to expunge the report. You would probably also involve the complainant in each of these steps, legally, so he or she could disagree. You can depose the complainant and do other discovery, too, in preparation for a hearing on the matter. The complainant probably won't want to make as much effort as it will take. Another possible target for an order would be the state of Massachusetts; we could seek to have them ordered not to report this incident any more.

We can also sue the complainant for libel and seek $300,000. I assume the complainant is a resident of Massachusetts.

Unfortunately, you can't force the client to arbitrate if you're bringing the matter to a head. Arbitration would be a very nice way to resolve this.

$300,000 in future earnings? Over how many years, do you figure? How did you arrive at that figure? And what's the value today of that $300,000 after discounting for future valuation? (Or is that the real total figure discounted to today's dollars?) That's a nice figure to banter about and entirely believable but still rather speculative.

We only need $25,000 of real tangible loss to get into the right court, $75,000 to get into a better court but that court wants real solid proof of the figure.

This looks like an interesting case that I might be willing to take after some further review. You can write more e-mail to me, fax the report against you to me at 617)527-1763, and/or call me if you like.

Good luck!