The NASDR is seeking comment on a pilot program it's run since January 1996 requiring temporary restraining order (TRO) cases to proceed to an expedited arbitration hearing.
Firms sometimes seek the restraining order, or injunction, against brokers who leave for a competitor. The orders prohibit reps from contacting former clients.
The NASDR's Notice to Members, 97-59, asks a number of questions about how the program should be structured, and whether firms should be able to get injunctive relief from either a court or an arbitrator, and how injunctive powers should be regulated.
The release does not ask whether firms should be banned from seeking TROs altogether against lone reps who leave. In fact, the release calls all TRO cases "raiding" cases.
The NASDR says that from the beginning of 1996 through Aug. 18, 1997, 433 cases were filed seeking injunctive relief.
Text of the release can be viewed at www.nasdr.com/ 2520.htm. Deadline for comments is Oct. 31.
