Brie Austin

How to Lose a Stock Loss Recovery Case with Cold Spring Advisory Group in Three Easy Steps

Stock loss recovery claims are serious. You can’t bring a claim without being able to prove that your investment loss was due to the unethical and/or illegal actions of the party you’re listing as the Respondent of the claim.  So how you can lose a stock loss recovery case in three easy steps? let me show you. 

Step 1: Fail to hire knowledgeable representation.

Step 2: Fail to file the correct claim documents

Step 3: File an Arbitration without a valid case.

You may be saying to yourself that the above three points are obvious. So why would someone make those simple errors? The answer is that the firm had the lack of experience and professionalism to avoid mistakes; they were ruthless enough to take upfront fees for a case they had to know had no substance and, they’d lose, and the client was so excited to have a chance to recover lost investments that he simply didn’t research the firm he was hiring.

ARBITRATION  NO. 15-02865 Jay R. Simon vs. Aegis Capital Corp., and others.
Damages sought: $29,000 + $3,500 costs.

Cold Spring Advisory Group represented Mr. Simon — and sent Jennifer Tarr, a member of their team, to handle the case and arbitration process. 

The case was filed on October 21, 2015 by Jennifer Tarr and CSAG even though they had no legal authority to do so. You’d think that if this is what they did for a living that they should have known, or researched and discovered, that it was not legal in the state of Arizona to represent clients in any legal action — including arbitration — unless you were licensed to practice law.

By September 2016 the Arbitratior cited “IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that under Rule 12208(c) of the FINRA Code of Arbitration Procedure, as limited by Arizona law, CSAG and Ms.Tarr cannot and could not represent Claimant in this arbitration.”

With Step #1 down, Cold Spring Advisory reached out to attorney Hilton Weiner. They’ve worked with  with him  on and off over the years, despite — prior to his involvement with them — Mr. Weiner having little or no experience in the securities industry in general, or arbitration proceedings in particular. This became more evident as I read through the arbitration documents regarding the case. 

Firstly, according to the arbitrator, Mr. Weiner should have refiled an “ASOC” and “FS” to restate their claims, and provide supporting legal authority — in contrast, he noted, to “CSAG’s deficient pleadings.”

Attorney Wiener decided to try and skip that and proceed on a fast-track by merely “adopting” the previous filings and actions of Ms. Tarr. The arbitrator noted that Hilton Wiener’s “adoption” of CSAG’s pleadings is defective because the second FS he submitted is not a new submission at all because it was dated six weeks before he filed his notice of appearance in the matter.”

Throughout this arbitration you come across the Clamants sloppiness and unpreparedness.

With Step #2 now accomplished, all that was left was to lose the case, which they did.

How to Lose a Stock Loss Recovery Case in Three Easy Steps

In the court documents it noted that “Although FINRA arbitration rules do not provide for explained decisions in simplified arbitrations, such as this arbitration, the undersigned Arbitrator feels that it is important for Claimant to understand why he is not entitled to recover any damages from Respondents under his claims as presented in his ASOC and FS. Based on a review of all of the evidence submitted in this matter by both Claimant and Respondents, the undersigned Arbitrator finds and concludes that Claimant has not sustained his burden of proof on any of his claims.”

When reading through the claims and the findings, I didn’t need to be an expert to recognize that the claimant had no case. Nothing had happened at Aegis that was any different than the trades Mr. Simon was engaged in at other firms. He had signed the accredited disclosure forms and fully understood that the trades were high risk.   

For believing that Cold Spring Advisory Group could recover his $29,000, Mr. Simon was ordered to pay 100% of the FINRA forum fees for his troubles. And, I suspect, for bad judgement. 

As I have written and explained before, you can’t file a claim against your broker or their firm simply because you lost money. You have to ‘prove’ that the broker and/or firm partook in unethical and/or illegal behavior that resulted in in your loss.

If you think you have a claim research thoroughly multiple stock loss recovery firms to become familiar with the standard operating procedures in that industry.  If a firm asks for upfront fees, as its alleged Cold Spring Advisory Group does, be leery. It was one of the red flags FINRA said to look for in the Alert notice, which I discussed in How To Spot Stock Loss Recovery Scams.

If you meet with several firms and no one will take your case, guess what? You probably don’t have one. If then suddenly one comes along telling you that you have a great case, and they’ll handle it for an upfront fee … refer to Step 1, 2 and 3 above.  

If you suspect fraud, file a complaint using FINRA’s online Investor Complaint Center or call FINRA at (240) 386-HELP (4357).

About Brie Austin

Co-author of I'd Do It Again, he is a columnist/reporter for a variety of magazines in the areas of music, lifestyle, nightlife, travel and business. He also writes business documents and creates copy for websites.