Stoneman Law · Westcliffe, Colorado · Securities arbitration since 1986
I’m Tracy Pride Stoneman. For more than thirty years I have done one kind of law — recovering investors’ money from brokerage firms — and I have done it one way: myself, start to finish, on cases I’m prepared to try. Millions recovered. Nationwide.
Sun to Sat, 7 AM to 4 PM Mountain
The Wall Street Journal
Front page, business section — March 1994
Fifth Circuit precedent
Kramer v. Smith Barney, 80 F.3d 1080
PIABA
Member since 1990 · Board of Directors, 1999–2005
The other side of the bench
Former municipal judge & NASD/NYSE arbitrator
The question
Fair question — I’d ask it too. When I started doing securities litigation exclusively, I had very little competition. That’s why I own the two domains you may have arrived through: brokeragefraud.com and investorfraud.com. Thirty years later the internet is full of fancy websites claiming the specialty. So ask any of them three questions:
01
Far too many of my competitors take cases they never intend to take through arbitration — then settle for cents on the dollar. I will not take any case unless I am willing to go all the way through the entire litigation process. The firms know which lawyers fold. They also know which ones don’t.
02
At the big securities firms, your case is handled by younger associates and legal staff. Here, I perform 100% of the work on your case. Thirty years of exclusive, hands-on securities litigation — and I purposefully keep my caseload small so it stays that way.
03
Many firms that appear to do securities litigation also dabble in personal-injury work. I do exclusively securities litigation. Nothing else. Since 1986.
Answers matter more than websites. Mine are above — and the record below is how I back them up.
The evidence
$1,225,000+
Recovered for an 87-year-old man — losses, $225,000 in fees, and costs. Raymond James, 2011. One of the largest awards against the firm.
$625,000
Awarded to a nurse anesthetist whose best friend at Merrill Lynch lost his life savings — damages, fees, and costs.
$279,805
A make-whole award against Morgan Stanley, with the Panel finding federal and state securities-law violations in writing.
3:00 AM
When the Gruttadauria fraud case settled — the night before the hearing, after months of discovery battles. My client lost millions; my client recovered.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Amounts are from actual awards and settlements; confidential settlements are described as the client agreements allow.
The unfair advantage
Brokerage Fraud: What Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know (Dearborn Trade, 2002) — co-authored with my husband, Douglas J. Schulz, one of the country’s most sought-after securities expert witnesses. Lawyers are trained in law, not securities. I married my expert. When Doug assists on my cases, he charges nothing — a resource no other solo securities lawyer in the country can offer.
“They make enough of a case to get even very trusting investors to (wisely) think thrice about any broker’s advice.”
What I take on
Almost every case I handle involves a suitability violation — and most involve several kinds of wrongdoing at once. These are the six I see most.
Fraud doesn't just mean your stockbroker lied to you about an investment. The aspect that comes into play most often is the omissions — what the stockbroker failed to tell you. Stockbrokers…
FINRA Rule 2111 requires that stockbrokers have a reasonable basis to believe a recommended investment is suitable for the customer. Almost every case I handle involves a suitability…
Most stockbrokers are incentivized to trade your account more actively — the more they trade, the more commissions they make, regardless of how the account performs. There are technical…
One of the hallmarks of proper investing is diversification. I see a significant number of cases where stockbrokers have improperly concentrated an investor's portfolio in illiquid…
I am amazed how many investors are unaware that their stockbroker is required to speak to them before each and every trade. FINRA Rule 2010 prohibits brokers from making unauthorized…
I also represent stockbrokers in claims against their own firms — usually wrongful termination or defamation arising from language firms put on the Form U-5 that can impair a broker's…
Counsel, off the clock
Home is a 160-acre ranch in the Sangre de Cristo range outside Westcliffe, Colorado — named for the red glow the peaks take at dawn. Doug and I share it with two malamutes, a multi-year forest-restoration project featured in a University of Colorado documentary, and the occasional orphaned bear cub: we funded “Bear Haven,” an enclosure where cubs grow up wild before release.
Clients tell me I’m cheerful and easy to work with — “unlike most lawyers I know.” I take that as the compliment it is. The aggression is reserved for the hearing room.
More about Tracy
In their words
“Undoubtably the finest arbitration attorney I've met to date!”
“Tracy was a wonderful lawyer in my and my husband's huge case against Prudential Securities. She was relentless in going after the stockbroker and firm, determined to obtain all of the documents that helped our case and hurt theirs (that's why the firm didn't…”
“Tracy P. Stoneman of Stoneman Law is a brokerage fraud attorney. I highly recommend Mrs. Stoneman. She is very efficient and professional. She is an excellent attorney who handled my case when other attorneys rejected my case. Mrs. Stoneman is extremely…”
Straight answers
Including the answer some lawyers won’t give you: sometimes the right advice is don’t file. I’ve spent weeks evaluating cases and then advised against pursuing them — free. That’s the cost of doing this work honestly.
All questions & answersNo — and in most cases you cannot. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that brokerage firms can require customers to sign binding arbitration agreements, so nearly all investor disputes go through FINRA arbitration rather than court. That is actually good news: arbitration takes far less time than court, costs less (depositions are rarely allowed), and the result is final — brokerage firms have very limited rights to appeal.
You can, but the numbers are brutal. In FINRA statistics for 2015 and 2016, pro se claimants who took their cases to hearing won only 8% of the time, compared to a 52% win rate for claimants represented by counsel. Securities arbitration has its own rules, procedures and gamesmanship — half the battle is forcing the brokerage firm to produce the documents that hurt them.
Nothing. I evaluate cases for free, and the evaluation has no downside other than your time. Sometimes after reviewing documents I advise that no action should be taken — and you come away knowing an experienced securities lawyer evaluated your case. More often, you learn whether you have a case worth pursuing, considering damages, strength of liability, and collectability.
The choice is yours — not the lawyer's. I take cases hourly, on contingency (I am paid a percentage only if you recover), or on hybrid arrangements: for example, hourly through the discovery phase, then switching to contingency; or a lower hourly rate paired with a lower contingency percentage. Colorado ethics rules require that clients be informed they have the right to choose the type of fee arrangement.
Your move
Tell me what happened. I’ll tell you — honestly — whether you have a case worth pursuing, what it could recover, and every way I can be paid, including contingency: nothing unless you recover.
Representing investors and stockbrokers nationwide · Westcliffe, Colorado