News
Goldberg Kohn Principal Roger Lewis is quoted in the Oct. 20, 2022, issue of Bloomberg Law in an article titled, "Whistleblowers Eye Clearer Path Following Supreme Court Denials."
According to the article author, Daniel Seiden, False Claims Act whistleblowers that target defense contractors and health-care companies may have a better idea of which courts will be friendlier to their fraud allegations now that the United States Supreme Court has decided not to weigh in on what makes a complaint adequate.
"Whistleblowers now have a fairly clear roadmap of where suits can be filed that are more or less hospitable as it relates to the need to provide exemplar claims."
The article reports on the United States Supreme Court's rejection of three petitions seeking clarity on how much detail a False Claims Act complaint must include to survive a motion to dismiss, arguing that a split among federal circuit courts was confusing litigants.
That status quo outcome provides some relief for whistleblowers—also known as relators—who were concerned the high court could impose a heavier nationwide burden on whistleblower complaints early in litigation.
Whistleblowers now have a “fairly clear roadmap of where suits can be filed that are more or less hospitable as it relates to the need to provide exemplar claims,” said Mr. Lewis, who represents whistleblowers with Goldberg Kohn. And any Supreme Court decision on this issue would have led to “new fights” with “likely unknown and unexpected variation in the lower courts,” he said.
