{"id":4692,"date":"2008-12-16T18:28:18","date_gmt":"2008-12-16T18:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stockbrokerfraudblog.com\/2008\/12\/former_next_financial_group_st_1"},"modified":"2022-03-30T10:04:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T15:04:48","slug":"former-next-financial-group-st-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/former-next-financial-group-st-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NEXT Financial Group Stockbroker\u2019s Claim that He Was Fired for Refusing to Conceal Churning is Subject to Arbitration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Texas Supreme Court says that former NEXT Financial Group Inc. stockbroker Michael Clements&#8217;s claim that the brokerage firm fired him for refusing to cover up churning activity must be arbitrated. Clements was hired as a NEXT Financial regional supervisor in September 2006. Nearly a year later, the brokerage firm fired him because he allegedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/broker-misconduct.html\">failed to perform his required broker responsibilities<\/a> related to an NASD audit.<\/p>\n<p>Clements filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming he was terminated from his job because he refused to conceal the fact that a NEXT trader had violated federal securities laws by churning client accounts. NEXT pushed for arbitration, claiming that Clements had signed a Form U-4 when he was hired, which requires that he resolve any claims with the brokerage firm through arbitration-per the Federal Arbitration Act.<\/p>\n<p>Clements has maintained that because his claim was based on at-will employment and wrongful termination, rather than a contract connected to a commercial transaction, his claim is exempt from the FAA&#8217;s arbitration requirement. He also asserted that his claim resulted from NEXT&#8217;s alleged illegal behavior, not its business dealings, and that a recent change in NASD code (following the National Association of Securities Dealers&#8217;s merger with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) indicated an intent to exclude disagreements involving employment matters from arbitration. Clements noted Sabine Pilot Services v. Hauck, (1 687 S.W.2d 733, 1985), a case where the Texas Supreme Court held that an employer had to pay an ex-employee damages because the worker was fired for refusing to perform an illegal act.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Supreme Court, however, upheld that the FAA was applicable in this case, NEXT could compel arbitration, and the NASD rule 13200 (a) did not exclude employment and termination-related claims. The court&#8217;s decision reverses the trial court&#8217;s ruling, which denied NEXT&#8217;s request, as did the court of appeals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Web Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextfinancial.com\/\">Next Financial Group Inc.<\/a><br \/>\n <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/former-next-financial-group-st-1\/#more-4692\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Texas Supreme Court says that former NEXT Financial Group Inc. stockbroker Michael Clements&#8217;s claim that the brokerage firm fired him for refusing to cover up churning activity must be arbitrated. Clements was hired as a NEXT Financial regional supervisor in September 2006. Nearly a year later, the brokerage firm fired him because he allegedly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3798,3773,3752,3873],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arbitration","category-broker-fraud","category-financial-firms","category-next-financial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former NEXT Financial Group Stockbroker\u2019s Claim that He Was Fired for Refusing to Conceal Churning is Subject to Arbitration &#8212; Investor Lawyers Blog &#8212; December 16, 2008<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Texas Supreme Court says that former NEXT Financial Group Inc. stockbroker Michael Clements&#039;s claim that the brokerage firm fired him for refusing to &#8212; December 16, 2008\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/former-next-financial-group-st-1\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Former NEXT Financial Group Stockbroker\u2019s Claim that He Was Fired for Refusing to Conceal Churning is Subject to Arbitration &#8212; Investor Lawyers Blog &#8212; December 16, 2008\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Texas Supreme Court says that former NEXT Financial Group Inc. stockbroker Michael Clements&#039;s claim that the brokerage firm fired him for refusing to &#8212; December 16, 2008\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Former NEXT Financial Group Stockbroker\u2019s Claim that He Was Fired for Refusing to Conceal Churning is Subject to Arbitration &#8212; 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