The issue over the Fiduciary Rule, and whether it will be implemented, revised, vacated, forgotten, etc. has been ongoing. In March 2018, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of several business groups who challenged the Fiduciary Rule. See (https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/17/17-10238-CV0.pdf).
Specifically, the business groups challenged the Rule on multiple grounds, including:
(a) the Rule's inconsistency with the governing statutes,
(b) DOL's overreaching to regulate services and providers beyond its authority,
(c) DOL's imposition of ...
The Fifth Circuit Bar Association's summary reports: "Appellants were investors who suffered financial losses as a result of R. Allen Stanford's Ponzi scheme. In their arbitration complaint, they sought $80 million in damages. After a two week hearing, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel rejected Appellants' claims, but it awarded them $10,000 in compensation for certain arbitration-related expenses. "On November 7, 2014, Appellee filed, pursuant to Section 9 of the Federal Arbitration Act, a motion to confirm the arbitration award. Because the arbitration ...
Last week the Fifth Circuit weighed in on how inartfully crafted arbitration and forum-selection clauses might trump one another. Together with recent decisions from the Second and Ninth Circuits - each with cert petitions pending - the issue seems poised for Supreme Court determination. Forum-Selection vs Arbitration Pending Supreme Court? The Second and Ninth Circuits held that a subsequent contractual forum-selection clause requiring all disputes to be resolved in a specified federal-court trumps FINRA's base requirement that FINRA member firms must arbitrate upon a ...