The United States Circuit Court for the District of Columbia recently weighed in on the Whistleblower statute’s (False Claim Act’s) first-to-file rule as it applies to a whistleblower filing a second complaint in the case of Shea v. Cellco Partnership.  The court issued a ruling on April 11, 2014 and its ruling has created some controversy. In Shea, Stephen Shea filed a...

In Wilson v. Bristol-Myers Squibb, the United States First Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a district court opinion that a whistleblower (relator) waited too long to file an amended suit.  In this case, Wilson filed a complaint in the Central District of California under seal and then filed an amended complaint in October 2006, which alleged that...

As a general rule, for a whistleblower to recover in a False Claims Act case, he or she must be the first to file suit.  This is a statutory requirement  pursuant to 31 U.S.C. Section 3737(b)(5).  Furthermore, there are a few policy reasons typically cited that support the law.  First, the government wants to give incentives to whistleblowers to come forward quickly....