WASHINGTON, DC, July 6, 2020: Morgan Lewis is pleased to announce the publication of the fifth edition of Civil False Claims and Qui Tam Actions, written for Wolters Kluwer by partner Douglas Baruch and co-author John Boese, with the assistance of others in Morgan Lewis’s False Claims Act (FCA) and qui tam litigation practice. This comprehensive, two-volume treatise, which is frequently cited by federal and state courts as an authority on the FCA, provides a full history of the federal law, an in-depth analysis of its liability provisions and the case law interpreting them, extensive perspectives on FCA practice and procedure, and a survey of state and local false claims laws.
“False Claims Act litigation—with its unique qui tam enforcement mechanism and other specialized practices and procedures—is an exciting and ever-evolving area of the law,” Douglas says. “FCA practitioners, from defense lawyers and in-house counsel to plaintiffs’ lawyers and judges, understand that this area of civil fraud enforcement is unlike any other and that it can be a full-time job to keep pace with all of the enforcement developments and case law interpreting the act’s complicated provisions.”
“We are thrilled to be able to contribute authorship to what has long been recognized as the definitive treatise on FCA law,” adds Eric Sitarchuk, chair of the firm’s white collar litigation and government investigations practice and a veteran FCA litigator.
Morgan Lewis is well known for having one of the nation’s premier FCA and qui tam litigation practices, with a deep bench of first-chair FCA litigators. The firm has defended such cases in courts throughout the country, and in a broad variety of industry sectors. Our FCA lawyers, strategically located across the United States, are trusted advisers on all manner of FCA enforcement and litigation, at both the federal and state levels.
FCA litigation and qui tam whistleblowers have become the staple of civil fraud enforcement. In recent years, more than 700 qui tam suits have been filed annually targeting businesses and individuals across the industry spectrum, and annual FCA recoveries are averaging more than $3 billion. While the bulk of the recoveries arise from healthcare matters, one constant in FCA litigation is that qui tam relators and their counsel continue to push the envelope, seeking to expand the theories of liability and to broaden the targets for FCA enforcement. The potentially enormous recoveries also have attracted litigation funders and nontraditional qui tam plaintiffs in search of big payoffs. This phenomenon surely will continue in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the massive expenditure of federal dollars—including via stimulus and grants under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—to business recipients unfamiliar with federal laws and procedures will result in new FCA suits. The unprecedented invocation of the Defense Production Act is expected to prompt FCA investigations and litigation as well.
The fifth edition would not have been possible without the substantial contributions of Morgan Lewis partner Jennifer Wollenberg and associates Kayla Stachniak Kaplan and Neaha Raol; and Nancy Barr, who has worked on this treatise for many years.