FINRA’s Proposed Amendments to the Discovery Guide

SIFMA’s Arbitration Committee provides comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) proposed amendments to the Discovery Guide and rules 12506 and 12508 of the Code, File No. SR-FINRA-2010-035. We understand that FINRA’s proposal is intended to expand the guidance FINRA gives to parties and arbitrators on the discovery process and to streamline the Document Production Lists from fourteen down to two. SIFMA generally supports expanded guidance and streamlining of the discovery process, but believes the proposal, as written, would result in increasingly voluminous, burdensome, and expensive discovery and motion practice in every case.