A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel ruled in a favor of a former J.P. Morgan Chase advisor in his defamation claim against the company, Advisor Hub reports.
The decision came in the case of Dustin B. Luckett, who was awarded $1.4 million by the FINRA arbitrators and was also authorized to expunge a termination notice from his record.
Luckett, who had been a private client advisor for J.P. Morgan in Louisville, was terminated by the firm in June 2017. J.P. Morgan claimed that Luckett had a co-worker notarize a document without having the signing customer present, and following that allegation, had engaged in conduct that violated the firm’s anti-retaliation policies.
Luckett denied any kind of retaliation against the manager who reported him, and denied the characterization of events that was used to justify his termination. He asserted he had never received any kind of training regarding the Kentucky notarization rules.
After his discharge J.P. Morgan entered an explanation into his record, a Form U5, which can be seen by prospective employers and also the public on BrokerCheck.
In ruling in favor of Luckett, the FINRA panel said J.P. Morgan’s allegations against him were defamatory and ordered that the explanation for his termination be amended because of the nature of the information.
Luckett claimed other lucrative job opportunities were rescinded following his termination from J.P. Morgan because of the information on his record. He said the assertions on his Form U5 were “purposely put there in order to hamper my future employment prospects and coerce existing clients to remain with [J.P. Morgan].”
At Hyman Cotter PC, our firm has considerable experience with FINRA’s procedures for expunging false, defamatory and erroneous disclosures from a registered representative’s record. This experience includes seeking expungement in existing FINRA customer and employment arbitrations, as well as filing separate FINRA arbitrations for the sole purpose of seeking expungement. If you have any concerns about problematic disclosures on your CRD record or those that are viewable on FINRA’s BrokerCheck portal, contact the securities expungement attorneys at Hyman Cotter PC at 312-291-4600 or through our online contact form for a free consultation.
