By James Langton

NASD Dispute Resolution Inc. is putting its arbitration award database online.

NASDDR says that that it will begin making its vast library of arbitration awards available online on June 1. The awards library will be available for search 24 hours a day, seven days a week by award number, parties involved in the arbitration, arbitrator and award date.

In Canada, investment industry critic and former regulator Glorianne Stromberg has stressed the need for publicly-accessible databases of such information, as well as databases of client complaints and discipline action. However, there is little evidence of similar efforts here.

Once the new NASD system is live, awards will be accessible via a link on the NASD Dispute Resolution Web site. In addition to the full text of an award, more sophisticated tools and enhanced services, including summary and analysis of specific awards, will be available for a fee.

“Awards from our forum are a tremendous resource for parties in the process of selecting arbitrators to hear their claim,” said Linda Fienberg, president of NASDDR. “Making them readily accessible, free of charge, so that parties are able to review them at their convenience, will be an enormous help to anyone filing an arbitration claim.”