Overall
Key cases
Industries
Intellectual Property
Labor & Employment
Corporate
Practice Areas
Government Contracts
-
April 18, 2013
Defense Contractor Avoids Arbitration In $67M Default Row
A Pennsylvania federal judge ruled Wednesday that it was premature to send to arbitration a lawsuit accusing security contractor SOC-SMG Inc. of refusing to pay its share of a defaulted $67 million loan it took out with its partner, Day & Zimmermann Group Inc., to fund a joint venture.
-
April 17, 2013
Army Corps, Contractor Freed From Katrina Levee Liability
A Louisiana federal judge said Friday that Washington Group International Inc. and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are not liable for the failures of “tragically flawed” levees in New Orleans' Ninth Ward during Hurricane Katrina.
-
April 16, 2013
10th Circ. Backs 6-Year Sentence For Corrupt Prison Official
The Tenth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the 70-month prison sentence imposed on a former high-ranking New Mexico corrections official who took about $237,000 in kickbacks from a roofing contractor, finding she had properly received a sentencing enhancement for obstructing the investigation into her misconduct.
-
April 16, 2013
Amgen To Pay $25M To Escape Anemia Drug Kickback Suit
Amgen Inc., which pled guilty in December to misbranding its Aranesp anemia drug, will pay $24.9 million to settle a whistleblower suit alleging it paid kickbacks to pharmacy providers to promote the drug among Medicare and Medicaid patients, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday.
-
April 16, 2013
Fla. Hospital Shakes Whistleblower's Kickback, FCA Suit
A Florida federal judge on Tuesday cleared the operators of All Children's Hospital of a suit alleging they paid physicians at supracompetitive levels and submitted false Medicaid claims, saying the False Claims Act allegations weren't specific enough.
-
April 16, 2013
Judge Won't Step Down From Exxon Cleanup Suit
A federal judge refused Tuesday to bow out of Exxon Mobil Corp.'s suit seeking reimbursement from the U.S. government for cleanup costs at two federally funded aviation fuel production facilities, saying his recusal in parallel cases would not affect his impartiality.
-
April 16, 2013
Minn. Appeals Court Revives Tribal Casino Expansion Suit
A Minnesota appeals court restored a breach of contract suit Monday that the city of Duluth had lodged at a Native American tribe over the tribe's alleged attempts to grow its casino gaming operations with the purchase of a hotel property.
-
April 15, 2013
9th Circ. Pares Convictions In Calif. City Corruption Case
The Ninth Circuit on Monday reversed some of the convictions of Albert Robles — the imprisoned former treasurer of South Gate, Calif. — and his associate over Robles’ bribery scheme with city contractors, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Skilling v. United States, which narrowed the scope of honest services fraud.
-
April 12, 2013
Millennium Disclosures Don't Nix All FCA Claims: 1st Circ.
The First Circuit on Friday revived part of a False Claims Act suit accusing Millennium Laboratories of California Inc. of pushing doctors to order excessive and medically unnecessary drug tests, finding that only some of the suit's claims relied on information Millennium had already disclosed in another lawsuit.
-
April 12, 2013
US Loses Bid For Doc Disclosure In $11B False Claims Suit
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Friday shot down the federal government's objection to a special master's recommendation barring disclosure of confidential materials in a whistleblower suit accusing for-profit college chain owner Education Management Corp. of falsely claiming it was eligible for $11 billion in federal funding.
-
April 12, 2013
TVA Contractor Gets 6 1/2 Years For $2.5M Bonus Fraud
A Tennessee federal judge on Thursday sentenced a construction firm contractor to 6 1/2 years in prison for falsifying safety records at Tennessee Valley Authority power plants as part of a scheme to collect more than $2.5 million in bonuses.
-
April 12, 2013
Fake Doctor Gets 12 Years For Medicare Fraud, Records Theft
A New York federal judge Wednesday handed down a 12-year prison sentence to a woman who posed as a doctor to steal records of 1,000 patients and defraud Medicare in a multimillion-dollar scheme that funded purchases of a mansion and luxury cars, prosecutors said.
-
April 11, 2013
GSA Must Give Firm 2nd Shot At $1.4B Travel Contract
The U.S. General Services Administration wrongfully shut out CW Government Travel Inc. from a $1.4 billion contract to help power an online travel booking and authorization portal used by more than 70 federal agencies, a U.S. federal judge said Thursday in a case of first impression.
-
April 11, 2013
For-Profit Trade School Can't Dodge FCA Suit
A California judge on Thursday largely denied a move by for-profit Institute of Technology Inc. to toss a False Claims Act suit alleging the vocational school misrepresented itself while seeking $38 million annually in claims from the U.S. Department of Education, finding the relators have properly alleged their case.
-
April 10, 2013
Judge Nixes Airport Contractors' RICO Suit Against Rival
A Florida federal judge Tuesday threw out a racketeering suit brought by two baggage wrapping companies alleging their competitor, Secure Wrap of Miami Inc., used threatening tactics to undermine their business on a government contract for Miami International Airport.
-
April 10, 2013
Ex-FEMA Official Gets Probation Over Gallup Conflict
A former Federal Emergency Management Agency official on Tuesday received two years' probation after pleading guilty to a conflict of interest stemming from whistleblower allegations that he helped Gallup Inc. negotiate a $6 million subcontract while he was being considered for employment with the polling organization.
-
April 9, 2013
State Farm Defrauded Flood Program After Katrina, Jury Finds
A Mississippi federal jury found Monday that State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. defrauded the U.S. government's flood insurance program into paying a $250,000 claim from Hurricane Katrina, allowing two whistleblowers to expand their False Claims Act suit to touch thousands of other Katrina claims.
-
April 8, 2013
No State Farm Conspiracy In Katrina FCA Suit, Judge Rules
A Mississippi federal judge on Friday tossed claims that State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. conspired with two engineering firms to defraud the U.S. government after Hurricane Katrina, leaving the jury to tackle two remaining claims in an epic, nearly 7-year-old False Claims Act suit.
-
April 8, 2013
Texans Can't Join $25B Wells Fargo Mortgage Fraud Case
A Washington federal judge refused Friday to allow a group of indigenous Texans to intervene in a case accusing Wells Fargo & Co. and others of misconduct related to Federal Housing Administration-insured loans that resulted in a landmark $25 billion settlement, finding the court lacked jurisdiction.
-
April 8, 2013
Cigna, Clinics Escape FCA Suit Over Patient Perks
A Cigna Inc. unit and a Florida clinic chain on Friday escaped a whistleblower False Claims Act suit accusing them of violating anti-kickback law by providing unlawful inducements to lure Medicare patients when a Tennessee federal judge ruled the relator’s claims weren’t based on firsthand evidence.
Expert Analysis
-
4th Circ. Ruling On Expired FCA Claims Is Troubling
The Fourth Circuit recently concluded that the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act tolled the six-year False Claims Act statute of limitations for false claims alleged under a 2005 war zone contract. The Carter v. Halliburton Co. decision leaves contractors increasingly vulnerable to stale claims asserted by opportunistic litigants well after the expiration of the FCA's six-year statute of limitations, says Rich Clifford of Perkins Coie LLP.
-
Can Employers Force Arbitration Of FCA Retaliation Claims?
As seen in Winston v. Academi Training Center Inc., a court may decide that one or two bad terms renders an entire arbitration clause unenforceable, thus eliminating the company’s ability to compel arbitration of False Claims Act retaliation claims. Companies should proceed with caution when drafting aggressive or boilerplate arbitration clauses, say attorneys with Nixon Peabody LLP.
-
No Defense Reimbursement For Insurers In Wash.
In Washington state, insurance carriers are between a rock and a hard place with an anvil overhead. The rock: coverage by waiver or estoppel if rights are not reserved. The hard place: the inability to obtain reimbursement for providing a prophylactic defense. The anvil: potential bad faith liability. In light of National Surety Corp. v. Immunex Corp., that seems to be where the Washington State Supreme Court wants them, says Louis Castoria of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP.
-
How Lawyers Benefit From Early Neutral Evaluation
Early neutral evaluation usually asks a retired judge to consider one party’s case, as if preparing to rule on summary judgment or presiding over a bench trial. Effective evaluation can supply a reality check on a case — it gives the lawyer the gift of seeing the case as others see it, says James Rosenbaum, a panelist with JAMS and former U.S. district judge for the District of Minnesota.
-
AT&T Case Confirms GAO's Broad View Of Waiver Authority
The U.S. Government Accountability Office's decision in AT&T Government Solutions Inc. opens the door for government agencies to use their waiver authority under Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 9.5 during a protest to render academic a protester’s claim of potential organizational conflicts of interest, say attorneys with Morrison & Foerster LLP.
-
Sequestration Raises Labor Law Risks For Contractors
Notwithstanding the additional flexibility provided by the spending bill that President Obama signed on March 26, sequestration will continue to cause significant uncertainty for government contractors due to government customers cutting programs, tasks and personnel. In selecting the employees who will be impacted by these cuts, contractors should apply reduction-in-force principles to reduce the likelihood of discrimination claims, say attorneys with Proskauer Rose LLP.
-
Rule 12(e): What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing
The recent evolution of case law governing the standard for Rule 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss reveals that Rule 12(e) serves no practical purpose in modern pleading practice, says Nathan Kipp of Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
-
Litigation Support At A Crossroads
Despite recession-driven cost pressures that have resulted in the downsizing of nonlawyer personnel at law firms, many litigation support departments are growing. In a recent survey, half of respondents indicated that their function has grown in size in the past three years, and more than half of respondents indicated that current staffing levels are inadequate for the projected needs of the coming year, say experts at Epiq Systems and Georgetown University Law Center.
-
FCA Allows Treble Damages — 'But Treble What?'
The ability to seek treble damages is a key feature of the False Claims Act, yet few courts have asked a simple question: “Treble what?” In United States v. Anchor Mortgage Corporation, the Seventh Circuit resoundingly rejected the Justice Department’s long-standing approach to calculating damages in FCA cases. The implications for financial institutions and others facing FCA liability are significant, say attorneys with BuckleySandler LLP.
-
Lance Armstrong’s FCA Woes: 3 Lessons For Contractors
The False Claims Act suit against Lance Armstrong is hardly a typical FCA case, given Armstrong’s celebrity status, the lurid allegations of the complaint and the very public way in which the scandal has unfolded. But it reflects a broader truth — government contractors are now operating in a time of unprecedented enforcement risk, say Steve Shaw and Mike Wagner of Covington & Burling LLP.