Dramatic declines in all of the major U.S. markets and the recent and on-going investigations involving conflicts of interest and investigation of corporate and fiscal improprieties dictate that every investor be more careful in reviewing their brokerage account activity and to take a critical view of their investment losses. Not all account losses are due to broker malfeasance or neglect, but often-substantial market losses are an indication of misconduct or wrongdoing, which should be investigated. Many different types of causes of action are recognized in the securities industry but the most common include the following:
These claims typically involve your stockbroker’s obligation to make investment recommendations, which are suitable in light of your financial circumstances, investment objectives, age, income and employment status. A broker’s failure to make suitable recommendations could give rise to a cause of action entitling you to recover all or some of your investment losses.
The broker has an obligation to secure your prior specific consent to any proposed transaction. Should they fail to do so you could be entitled to a monetary award.
Your broker has an obligation to disclose all material facts to you regarding any proposed investment or investment strategy. Your broker also has an obligation not to omit, or fail to advise you, of material facts that might have affected your investment decision.
Churning is the excessive trading of your account for the purposes of generating excessive commissions.
Many other causes of action exist including the broker’s failure to adhere to the rules and the policies of self regulatory organizations and the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, failure to supervise, failure to execute and margin violations.
Our offices are available to individual investors or groups of investors with respect to claims against their broker and brokerage firm. Mr. Lawlor has been personally involved in over 1,000 cases over 20 years before all of the major self-regulatory organizations and in front of panels around the country. He is proficient in all equity, debt, options products and strategies, as well as partnership investments, derivative products hedge funds and Private Placements.
Prior to accepting retention, we usually perform an in depth analysis of all potential claims to assess the viability and value of the claim and prior to initiating any action, such analyses includes the preparation of a profit and loss calculation of the customer’s account and an investment profile of the client with an emphasis on the customers’ prior trading history, assets, income, general sophistication and suitability analyses are performed internally or out sourced as necessary.
