Why your hearing will almost certainly be on video
Before 2020, a FINRA hearing meant a conference room in the FINRA hearing location closest to the customer, with the panel, both sets of lawyers, and the witnesses in the same room for several days. The pandemic moved every hearing to Zoom, and the forum discovered that most of them worked. FINRA’s rules now expressly provide for hearings by video conference when the parties agree or the panel orders one on a party’s motion, and a claimant who lives twelve time zones from the nearest hearing location is a recognized reason to grant one.
In practice, when the claimant lives abroad, the firm rarely fights a video hearing; its own witnesses and lawyers prefer not to travel either. If it did, the panel would decide, and the cost and burden of flying a retiree across the world to testify for a few hours weighs heavily.
Who is on the screen
A typical customer hearing has the following people in the meeting: one or three arbitrators, with the chairperson running the session; a FINRA staff member who manages the room and the recording; your attorney and you; the firm’s attorney and its witnesses, usually the broker and a branch manager or compliance person; and, on the days they testify, any expert witnesses. Witnesses who are not testifying are generally kept out of the meeting until their turn, so they do not hear each other.
The hearing is recorded by FINRA. Everyone testifying is sworn in, on camera, exactly as in a room. Arbitrators can and do ask questions directly.
How the days are structured
A hearing is scheduled in sessions — typically a morning and an afternoon session of roughly four hours each — over as many days as the panel has set, commonly three to five for a contested customer case. Day one opens with brief opening statements from each side, then the claimant’s case: you testify, followed by any other witnesses we call, often including a damages expert. The firm then presents its witnesses. Closing arguments come at the end, sometimes in writing afterward.
Panels sit on the hours of the US location assigned to the case. For a claimant in Mexico, Colombia, or Costa Rica that is the same working day. For a claimant in Thailand, the Philippines, or Vietnam, a session that starts at 9 a.m. in the Central time zone starts at 9 or 10 p.m. locally. Panels are used to this and will schedule your testimony in the session that is least punishing; you do not need to be present for every session, only the ones where you testify and any others you choose to watch.
What testifying looks like
Your attorney asks questions first — direct examination — walking through who you are, what you needed from the account, what the broker told you, and what happened. Then the firm’s attorney cross-examines. Cross tends to focus on documents you signed, risk-tolerance boxes that were checked, and any statement you did not complain about at the time. Then the arbitrators may ask their own questions. We prepare you for all three, in detail, in advance, including a full run-through by video so the format holds no surprises.
Exhibits are shown on screen. When a lawyer refers to a statement or a form, FINRA staff or the lawyer shares it, and you are asked to look at a specific page and line. Having a printed set of the key exhibits at your desk is allowed and helps.
Preparing your room
The panel judges credibility partly on how you come across, and a bad connection or a dark room works against you for no good reason. The list is short:
- A wired internet connection, or the strongest Wi-Fi in the house, tested at the hour you will testify
- A quiet room with the door closed and a plain background; sit facing a window or a lamp, not with one behind you
- A laptop or desktop rather than a phone, at eye level, with the camera on the whole time
- Headphones with a microphone if there is any echo or street noise
- Government ID at hand — the chair may ask you to show it when you are sworn
- Water, reading glasses, and the printed key exhibits
- Your phone off and out of reach; no one else in the room while you testify, and no notes beyond what the panel has allowed
Interpreters, accommodations, and breaks
If a witness needs an interpreter, one is arranged in advance and attends the video session. Panels routinely grant short breaks, and a witness who is testifying late at night can ask for them. If you have a medical condition that affects how long you can sit, tell us and we will raise it with the panel before the schedule is set. Arbitrators are, as a rule, courteous to a retiree testifying from the other side of the world at midnight, and it does not hurt the case.
After the last session
When the record closes, the panel deliberates privately and aims to issue its award within thirty business days. You will get it from us the day it comes. Mediation, if it happens, uses the same video format in a more relaxed form: a mediator moving between two virtual rooms, with you and your attorney in one of them, over the course of a day.
Key takeaways
If you remember six things
- FINRA hearings are routinely held by video, and a claimant abroad is a recognized reason to hold one that way.
- Sessions are about four hours, two per day, over three to five days; you attend the sessions where you testify.
- Panels sit on US hours and schedule an overseas claimant’s testimony in the least punishing session.
- Testimony is direct, cross, and arbitrator questions; we rehearse all three with you by video beforehand.
- A wired connection, a quiet lit room, a laptop at eye level, and printed exhibits are most of the preparation.
- Nothing about the format weakens the case. Panels are used to it.
Questions
Asked most often
Can the brokerage force an in-person hearing to make it hard for me?
It can ask, but the panel decides, weighing cost and burden. A retiree living abroad is a strong reason for video, and in practice firms rarely push for in-person hearings in these cases.
Do I have to be on screen for the whole hearing?
No. You must be present when you testify and are welcome for the rest. Many clients abroad watch the sessions that fall at reasonable local hours and skip the ones at 3 a.m.
What if my internet drops during testimony?
The chair pauses the hearing until you reconnect; it happens and panels are patient about it. A wired connection and a phone hotspot as backup make it unlikely.
Is a video hearing less likely to result in an award?
There is no evidence of that. The same arbitrators apply the same rules to the same documents; what changes is that no one has to travel.