Articles and Blogs

The Eleventh Circuit recently held that a qui tam relator cannot intervene in criminal forfeiture proceedings when the Government chooses to criminally prosecute fraud rather than intervene in a qui tam action. In United States v. Couch,[1] a former employee (“Relator”) of a pain management clinic in Alabama tried to recover amounts she believed... READ MORE

On April 11, 2018, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals split from the Fourth and Tenth Circuits when it issued an order effectively granting relators in qui tam actions an additional three years to file. The court ruled that § 3731(b)(2)’s three-year limitation, which has traditionally only been applied when the United States is... READ MORE

In an opinion loaded with linguistic hooks, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida recently reinforced the Supreme Court’s holding in Escobar, enthusiastically highlighting the importance of materiality and scienter in FCA cases. Background In U.S. ex rel. Ruckh v. Salus Rehabilitation, LLC, et al., Relators were successful in a... READ MORE

The Fifth Circuit recently addressed pre-suit disclosure and causation requirements for FCA theories of liability in United States ex rel. King v. Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc., 871 F.3d 318 (5th Cir. 2017). Two former employees (“Relators”) of Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. filed a qui tam suit claiming that Solvay induced false Medicaid claims through a variety... READ MORE

On May 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Kellog Brown & Root Service, Inv. et al. v. United States ex rel. Carter, 575 U.S. ____ (2015), Case No. 12-1497. Most of the commentary on the case centers around the Court’s decision on the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act, but... READ MORE

Written by David B. Honig and Ritu Kaur Cooper. On February 3, 2015, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that disclosures to the public officials responsible for managing the subject of a False Claims Act lawsuit did not qualify as “public disclosures” for the purpose of the FCA’s public disclosure bar. US ex rel. Wilson v.... READ MORE

Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, announced recently that all new qui tam complaints would be “shared by the Civil Division with the Criminal Division as soon as the cases are filed.” Fraud prosecutors will now review all qui tam complaints to determine whether to open a parallel criminal investigation. READ MORE

The Fifth Circuit rejected the government’s attempt to expand the FCA’s reach to include non-government funds overseen by a non-governmental entity simply because the government had the ability to exert a modicum of control over the entity. READ MORE

Three new FCA cases of interest were reported in the last few weeks. One was discussed previously on FCADefense.com in Toumey Loses Stark/FCA Case Again by Drew Howk. Another, Ulysses, Inc. v. United States is yet another example of the growing trend of failed FCA counter-claims by the Government in response to contract litigation. The Third, Fresenius... READ MORE

False Claims Act defense attorneys have been warning government contractors, particularly Medicare and Medicaid providers, of increased risks and a reduced ability to defend against whistleblower complaints since the passage of the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act of 2009 (“FERA”). The greatest risk comes from FERA’s addition of a new kind of reverse false claim:... READ MORE