The False Claims Act
This is the statutory term the FCA uses for a whistleblower.
What or who is a "relator"?
In the modern era, he is often thought of as the first whistleblower, a former Marine who leaked the Pentagon Papers.
Who is Daniel Ellsberg?
This agency reports that a claimant can expect to wait more than ten years for his claim for an award to be processed.
What is the IRS?
The Inspector General Act was passed in 1978. What scandal, involving misuse of agency powers, contributed to Congress passing this law?
What was "Watergate"?
In the False Claims Act, this provision gives the whistleblower's attorney some comfort that his/her time investment in the case may be compensable.
What is "attorney's fees" or "fee shifting" ?
This is the rule that knocks out other whistleblowers who might file claims later than they wished they had filed them.
What is "first to file" or the "first to file bar"?
Some say he's a traitor; some say he's a hero. He disclosed how the government was using technology to conduct surveillance of citizens without relation to identifiable national security concerns.
Who is Edward Snowden?
This company's accounting misrepresentations led directly to the Sarbanes Oxley law, requiring that companies make express certifications about the accuracy of their SEC filings, and holding accounting firms to higher standards with respect to such filings on behalf of their clients.
What was Enron?
One of the statutory duties of the Inspector Generals is to regularly submit written reports to this person or body.
What is Congress?
Companies view these as their property and make employees promise not to take them, but they are often critical components of whistleblower claims.
What are company documents or company data?
In addition to damages (possibly trebled), these allow the government to also seek a remedy on a per claim basis.
What are "penalties"?
He was not the whistleblower who kicked off the impeachment case against the President, but he was the most important witness called, having been "in the room where it happened."
Who is Alexander Vindman?
In these programs, which are different from the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act, the whistleblower doesn't file a complaint or serve a disclosure statement; instead the document that kicks off the process is called ______.
What is a "tip" or "claim" or "report"?
This agency's Inspector General found that detention centers were violating detainees' rights, including abuse of solitary confinement and inadequate medical care. It is unclear whether the agency has taken adequate steps to remedy the problem.
What is Homeland Security? or What is ICE? (Immigration Customs Enforcement)
If a former employee has signed one of these prior to coming to an attorney to file a whistleblower claim, the path forward becomes much more complicated.
What is a "release" or "release of liability" or "waiver of claims" ?
This document is an evidentiary "roadmap" that the FCA requires the whistleblower submit to the government but not file with the Court, when the complaint is first filed.
What is a "Disclosure Statement"?
He kept his identity secret for decades. Until shortly before he died, he was known only as "Deep Throat," the primary source for Woodward and Bernstein's coverage in the Washington Post of the Watergate story.
Who was Mark Felt?
What is 15-30%?
This is the proposed legislation that would make it harder for a future President to fire Inspectors General, by defining the limited number of bases for such terminations, and requiring substantial evidence.
What is the "Inspector General Independence Act" or "HR6984"?
There's a term that appies in a retaliation situation ro suggest that a plaintiff can't just sit back and wait to collect damages; he or she must actively try to find some other employment while the retaliation claim gets litigated.
What is the "duty to mitigate" or "mitigation of damages"?
The Rule of Civil Procedure that often comes up in FCA cases, requiring that the complaint be "pled with particularity."
What is Rule 9(b)? [of the FRCP]
In the first year of the country's existence (1777), these two Naval officers revealed to Congress that their commodore, Esek Hopkins, was torturing captured British sailors, leading to the "world's first whistleblower protection law" in 1778.
Who were Richard Marven and Samuel Shaw?
The SEC has warned companies that they could get in trouble from the Commission if this occurs, regardless of whether a whistleblower's claims are substantiated.
What is "retaliation"?
This Iowa Senator is known as a great champion of whistleblowers, but could offer only a tame letter in response to the Trump administration's purge of Inspector Generals from government service.
Who is Senator Grassley? or Who is Chuck Grassley?
This rule of evidence contains landmines for all lawyers working on whistleblower claims (including defense lawyers and prosecutors); it requires that everyone slow down and handle certain evidence with more care.
What is the attorney-client privilege?