Court Decision

Eighth Circuit Takes Broad View of Whistleblower “Finder's Fee”

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, a whistleblower who files an action that ultimately leads to a government recovery is entitled to a generous portion of the proceeds -- anywhere from 15 to 30 percent.  There is no discretion in making an award.  It is mandated by statute.  It is this unadulterated promise of a significant financial bounty that has been a...

Supreme Court Rules State AG Suits Free from CAFA Restraints

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, in a unanimous decision authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, that the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) does not apply to so-called parens patriae actions.  These are lawsuits filed by state attorneys general to recover damages on behalf of their residents for corporate misconduct.  The decision, Mississippi v. AU Optronics Corp., is notable...

Judge Posner Strikes a Small Win for Class Actions

By Jason Enzler Earlier this week a panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, led by legal luminary Judge Richard Posner, took the relatively rare step of reversing a district court’s denial of a motion for class certification.  The opinion in Phillips v. Asset Acceptance, LLC rejected the lower court’s ruling that would have limited the reach of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and narrowly...

Another Preemption Decision Sheltering Drug Makers from Liability

By Marlene Koury Pharmaceutical companies are on a roll.  They continue to prevail in court by relying on the preemption doctrine to block injured consumers from suing over defective drugs.  First, in the recent Mutual Pharmaceutical v. Bartlett and PLIVA v. Mensing decisions, the Supreme Court held that federal law bars suits against generic drug companies for defects in the design or labeling of their...

Blaming the Whistleblower – Court Rejects Novel Defense to False Claims Act Charges

By Gordon Schnell It would seem on its face to be a rather brazen approach to defending a False Claims Act lawsuit.  A healthcare company is charged with defrauding Medicare by billing it for medications the company never provided its patients.  The company not only denies the wrongdoing.  It goes one step further by arguing that, if there were any such misconduct, it was the whistleblower's fault by not...