A Finra spokeswoman declined comment.
Use of non-Finra forums is most common in employment cases.
Lawyers who represent individual brokers tend to prefer Finra, where arbitrators are more likely to be familiar with industry practices and procedural rules are less formal than at the American Arbitration Association or JAMS (Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services), two widely used private forums.
Finra has taken at least one enforcement action against a broker-dealer for avoiding arbitration of employment disputes. In 2012, it settled a case with Merrill Lynch for $1 million over the firm’s policy of forcing retention-bonus cases into New York state courts instead of Finra arbitration.