Court upholds Panel’s default judgment against claimant who alleged lack of service.

The petitioner sought confirmation of a FINRA arbitration award of default judgment against the respondent, who alleged lack of service. In the underlying arbitration, the respondent was served with copies of the Statement of Claim (SOC) by certified mail at her address of record, according to the information available on her Form U-4. The same address was used by FINRA to serve the notice of default and arbitration award. In making its decision, the court noted, “In other cases where parties allege lack of service of process, the burden of proof is high. Thus, the burden becomes steeper, requiring the party to provide ‘strong and convincing evidence’ when there is a signed receipt of service.” Ultimately, the Panel concluded that the respondent had received notice of the arbitration proceedings because there was an executed receipt card for service of the SOC and the respondent provided no evidence that service was not perfected. The court further noted that it was the respondent’s responsibility to update her address in the Form U-4.

_{Case Law Alerts, 2^nd Quarter, April 2015}

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