FINRA Races Clock for Seniors' and Sick's Disputes
Published Date: 8/26/2025
Notice
Summary
FINRA is speeding up arbitration cases for people who are older or have serious health issues, so they don’t have to wait as long to resolve disputes. This change affects anyone involved in FINRA arbitration who qualifies by age or health, making the process faster and fairer. The new rules kick in soon, helping save time and possibly money by settling cases quicker.
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Fast-track arbitration if you're 70 or older
If you are at least 70 years old when you ask for it, you can request accelerated FINRA arbitration when you start a case or file an answer. FINRA says the new rules should shorten eligible cases by about six months compared with the median non-accelerated customer arbitration time of about 15.7 months.
Expedited processing for serious health conditions
If you certify (in the form FINRA requires) that you have a medical diagnosis and prognosis and reasonably believe you need faster processing to avoid prejudice, you may request accelerated FINRA arbitration without disclosing the medical details. That certification alone cannot be used to force medical discovery or questioning.
Specific shortened deadlines and 10‑month goal
For cases granted accelerated processing, FINRA directs panels to endeavor to render an award within 10 months of the Director's determination. Default party deadlines are shortened: serving an answer is 30 days (instead of 45), responding to third‑party claims 30 days (instead of 45), returning ranked arbitrator lists 10 days (instead of 20), customer document production 35 days (instead of 60), and other discovery responses 30 days (instead of 60).
If you don't qualify, you can ask the panel to speed things
If you do not meet the age or health eligibility, you can still ask the arbitration panel to consider factors like your age or health when scheduling hearings and deadlines, but those cases would not receive the shortened, rules-based deadlines that apply to accelerated proceedings.
Privacy protections and sanctions for false claims
FINRA will not require disclosure of medical diagnosis details as part of the certification and a certification alone is not sufficient to compel medical discovery; FINRA will monitor misuse and updated guidance says arbitrators may remove a matter from accelerated processing or apply sanctions if a party misrepresents age or health to qualify.
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