PRE-ARBITRATION SUBPOENAS ISSUED TO HELP IDENTIFY PROPER PARTIES TO CONTEMPLATED ARBITRATION
A court granted a petition for pre-arbitration issuance of judicial subpoenas to enable the petitioners to learn the names of potential parties against whom they may have a claim in their contemplated arbitration. Although the contemplated arbitration was to be governed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s Code of Arbitration Procedure, those rules were silent as to pre-arbitration discovery. However, a New York civil procedure statute specifically permitted pre-action discovery “to aid in arbitration.” That statute had been invoked where application was made to discover the identity of potential parties against whom an action may exist, so the petition was held proper. Petition of VTrader Pro LLC, Index No. 102334/09 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Apr. 21, 2009).
This post written by Brian Perryman.
