Legal Question in Securities Law in Pennsylvania

Re: arbitration award

Depending on what forum you obtained your arbitration award, you have to file a petition to confirm the award before a court of competent jurisdiction under the federal or state arbitration act.

Many states, including PA, and the federal courts require this to be done within a stated period of time, or else you may lose your ability to petition to confirm the award.

Sometimes practitioners wait until the time for the losing party to seek to vacate the award has passed, before they file a petition to confirm the award.

However, even after you convert the award to a judgment, you then have to docket it in state court in a jurisdiction where any non-exempt assets are located and then get the sheriff to levy on these assets, if you can find them.

If your award is against a broker or firm, if they do not pay within 30 days, their licenses are suspended. (unless they go bankrupt)

During this period sometimes parties go bankrupt and then you have to argue to the bankruptcy court why this debt was the result of securities fraud and is non-dischargeable in bankruptcy.

It is a long, boring, costly and sometimes unrewarding process but you have to do it. You never know 10 years from now the debtor could win the lottery.

As for jail, we did away with debtor's prison in 1789. So no one goes to jail, at least not for owing and not paying an award.