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Qui Tam
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Qui Tam

Qui Tam

Cooper & Kirk have represented whistleblowers in qui tam actions brought under the False Claims Act seeking to obtain compensation on behalf of the United States. We have litigated and successfully settled a qui tam action challenging a scheme to submit false claims for reimbursement to Medicare and, more recently, an action alleging that federal contractors had improperly billed the Department of Defense for property management services. Cooper & Kirk also advises whistleblowers who are considering whether to bring suit on behalf of the United States.

Issue
False Claims Act Against Lockheed Martin

Overview The firm represented a group of individual qui tam relators in a False Claims Act action that sought to recover civil damages and fines for the United States Government from Lockheed Martin Corporation, and several predecessor corporations, for making false statements to the United States Department of Energy regarding the nuclear waste materials and environmental hazards at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Kentucky. The Department of Justice intervened in the case.

Issue
False Medicare Reimbursement

Overview We represented a relator and worked with the Department of Justice to secure a settlement of $225 million from Columbia HCA for falsely seeking and obtaining Medicare reimbursements. Of the total settlement, our client received $47 million. The United States intervened in the case, while declining to intervene in several other cases alleging similar misconduct.

Issue
Taxability of Contingent Attorney Fees
Level of Court
United States Supreme Court

Overview The Court held that a money judgment that constitutes income is taxable to the litigant, including any amount paid to an attorney as a contingent fee. We had filed an amicus brief on behalf of Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund, urging the Court not to decide the separate question of whether the entirety of a qui tam relator’s award, including any portion paid to an attorney as a contingent fee, would be taxable to the relator. Citing our brief, the Supreme Court specifically refrained from reaching this issue. 125 S. Ct. at 871.

Issue
Federal Claims Act - Damages
Level of Court
United States Supreme Court

Overview We filed an amicus brief successfully urging the Supreme Court to hold that the False Claims Act allows suits against cities, counties, and other local government entities. As urged in our brief, the Court unanimously rejected the position — previously embraced by the Court itself, and accepted by all of the other parties and amici in the case, including the Solicitor General — that False Claimse Act treble damages are punitive in nature. The Court held that treble damages are entirely remedial and therefore that doctrines against imposing punitive damages on governmental bodies are irrelevant. See 538 U.S. at 129-34.