Tips to Filing a Qui Tam

How Can You Blow the Whistle and File a Qui Tam Lawsuit?

In order to bring most qui tam or whistleblower lawsuits under the law you must use private counsel. While there are some matters you can bring without a qui tam attorney, federal False Claims Act (FCA) and/or various whistleblower state laws concerning the reporting of fraud in healthcare programs like Medicare, Medicaid and/or state law health care programs require a whistleblower lawyer to be involved. So its key to have a quality qui tam law firm involved early to help you with the process since you can’t file without one.

Based on the False Claims Act and other statutes if your case succeeds you may be eligible for roughly 15–30% of the amount the government recovers, but that will be based on a variety of factors, such as the extent of the involvement, quality of the information, and the length of time the fraud occurred without you reporting it. Further, the First to File rule means the first person to blow the whistle may be entitled to an award, but even if you’re a day late you are not entitled to anything.

Focus on What the False Claim Actually Is

The False Claim must be a materially false submission to the government for payment and the government must make the payment. It sounds simple, but you need to break down in the complaint what is false about the submission and whether  the government actually paid it and often one person doesn’t know the whole story. Since it is a fraudulent act, you must be able to specifically articulate the wrongful act, but a skilled qui tam lawyer or whistleblower law firm can assist with that.

Don’t Interview Witnesses Yourself

As any whistleblower law firm will tell you, the Department of Justice (DOJ) looks to corroborate your allegations and will consider who else can support your allegations. If there are witnesses, at some point you may share their contact information with the government. However, by contacting them yourself you run the risk of turning them into Medicare fraud whistleblowers. If they file first, your lawsuit can be barred by False Claims Act’s “first to file” provision.

Try to Quantify the Extent of the False Claims

One of the questions the government will want to know is how much fraud there is in terms of dollars. Qui Tam litigation is a matter of prioritization and the bigger the fraud, the more likely the government will dedicate resources to investigating and stopping it. As a rule of thumb if the fraud is in the mid seven figure range or above the government may intervene in a strong case. Below seven figures, it is doubtful they will undertake the matter and from 1 million to 5 million questionable. Still, no matter what the extent of the fraud is you should speak with a whistleblower law firm to understand your rights.

Be Realistic

Fraud against the government is rampant but intervention only occurs in a fraction of cases. Often the amount of money the government can recover is a compelling factor. Also, things don’t happen right away. When dealing with the government  there’s a lot of hurry up and wait.

Seek the Professional Advice of a Qui Tam Lawyer

Navigating the whistleblower statutes is complicated work. You need to comply with the pre-filing prerequisites and file the matter under seal. If you don’t file it properly, you may have inadvertently not blown the whistle, but instead blown your chance for a recovery. With Medicare whistleblower actions it is doubtful that you will be able to stay anonymous from start to finish, although initially your identity will be concealed until the lawsuit is unsealed which generally takes years. With SEC matters, you can blow the whistle yourself, but you cannot remain anonymous. Many SEC whistleblowers come to us after they attempted to do it by themselves and have already damaged their case, sometimes beyond repair.

Educate Yourself

Sometimes the Medicare fraud is so rampant that the industry treats the fraud as the norm. For example, a medical facility may consistently upcode a procedure and lead you to believe that is the acceptable industry practice. It is not! A reliable Medicare whistleblower law firm can help educate you about your rights and whether its worth even filing the matter.

Whistleblower law firms like our firm Brown, LLC are only paid if they win your case. We spend our time and money investigating the matter and if we don’t prevail, you don’t owe us anything at all. Call the whistleblower lawyers at Brown, LLC, 24/7 at 1 (877) 561-0000 to help you work through the entire qui tam process so that you can be confident of making an informed decision based on your best interests. We protect the whistleblower.

How do you file a Qui Tam lawsuit? 

A Qui Tam Lawsuit, sometimes referred to  as a whistleblower lawsuit is generally filed pursuant to the False Claims Act (FCA), which requires the use of a qui tam attorney. The case must be filed under seal with proper notice given to the various government agencies on behalf of the whistleblower, also known as a relator.

The First-to-File Rule: Why Acting Fast Is Critical in Qui Tam Cases

With hundreds of millions on the line, more and more people are conscious that they can collect sizeable whistleblower rewards for exposing fraud against the government. If there’s widespread fraud at your company, look to your left, and look to your right, your colleague might beat you the punch and collect that award, and if you’re late to the game, you might not even walk away with a single cent.

That’s because timing is crucial when filing a qui tam lawsuit. The rule known as the “first-to-file” rule is outlined under 31 U.S. Code § 3730(b)(5):

“When a person brings an action under this subsection, no person other than the Government may intervene or bring a related action based on the facts underlying the pending action.”

What this means is that once a case is filed, any lawsuit that is filed afterward with essentially the same facts are barred from filing a claim. With many employees who may have access to the same or comparable insider information, filing a claim early can be crucial to preserving the rights you have under the False Claims Act. The court explained the purpose of the “first-to-file” rule in a 2015 case – U.S. ex rel. Heath v. AT&T, Inc., 791 F.3d 112 (D.C. Cir. 2015):

“The purpose of the first-to-file bar is to encourage whistleblowers to promptly alert the government to fraud.”

Do Qui Tam Whistleblowers Receive Legal Protection Against Retaliation?

The government has introduced strong protections to protect whistleblowers from retaliation against employers’ retaliation provided the employee invokes their rights properly, which is why it’s critical to obtain quality whistleblower counsel. Qui tam whistleblowers are crucial to the government since they provide insider information of fraud, and so Congress has implemented protections to incentivize whistleblowers to come forward. The statute under the False Claims Act that protects whistleblowers is 31 U.S. Code § 3730(h):

“h) Relief From Retaliatory Actions.- (1) In general.-Any employee, contractor, or agent shall be entitled to all relief necessary to make that employee, contractor, or agent whole, if that employee, contractor, or agent is discharged, demoted, suspended, threatened, harassed, or in any other manner discriminated against in the terms and conditions of employment because of lawful acts done by the employee, contractor, agent or associated others in furtherance of an action under this section or other efforts to stop 1 or more violations of this subchapter. (2) Relief. -Relief under paragraph (1) shall include reinstatement with the same seniority status that employee, contractor, or agent would have had but for the discrimination, 2 times the amount of back pay, interest on the back pay, and compensation for any special damages sustained as a result of the discrimination, including litigation costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees. An action under this subsection may be brought in the appropriate district court of the United States for the relief provided in this subsection.”

What this means is that any whistleblower who is discharged, demoted, suspended, threatened, harassed, or discriminated against to stop a qui tam lawsuit is entitled to relief and the retaliatory entity can be punished. Relief for a retaliatory claim can include reinstatement, double back pay for lost wages, and any additional fees for emotional distress and attorney’s fees. Note, any claim for retaliation generally must be brought within 3 years of the act so contact a whistleblower attorney immediately to preserve your claim.

In addition, functionally, there may be other state law protections for whistleblowers too, but the key to protection is proper invocation. Blow the whistle the right way, you’re protected, the wrong you may receive nothing and be out of a job! Knowing which is which is critical so its paramount to consult with one of the best whistleblower law firms to know your rights.