Betsy is an associate in Dorsey’s Trial Group. Her practice involves complex commercial and civil matters, with an emphasis in areas of white collar defense, contract disputes, business litigation, and American Indian law. She has experience in state and federal courts at both trial and appellate levels.
Last month the Eighth Circuit considered and rejected an Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity defense to a qui tam action under the False Claims Act. In United States ex rel. Fields v. Bi-State Development Agency, No. 16-3783, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 13925 (8th Cir. August 1, 2017), a former employee of Bi-State alleged that the defendant interstate compact entity raised funds and required its employees to...
The False Claims Act (FCA) allows plaintiffs/relators to bring qui tam actions, in which the government may then elect to intervene. The FCA also provides that “[t]he Government may settle a [qui tam] action with the defendant notwithstanding the objections of the person initiating the action if the court determines, after a hearing, that the proposed settlement is fair, adequate, and reasonable under all the...
The qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act allow private citizens to file FCA claims on behalf of the government. The government may elect to intervene in the action—or it may not. The United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia held earlier this month that when the government does not intervene, it is a party in interest, but not a party to...
Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia dismissed a 2-count False Claims Act (FCA) complaint against Unisys Corporation. United States ex rel. Soodavar v. Unisys Corp., 2016 WL 1367163 (April 5, 2016) (“Soodavar”). The case addresses several important limits on FCA claims. Count I alleged that certain Unisys employees were so unqualified that their services, which involved installing and...
The Department of Justice and Tuomey Healthcare have announced a $72.4 million settlement in a lawsuit that the DOJ touts as “another achievement for the [DOJ and DHS] Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative.” The settlement follows a 2013 trial in which a jury found Tuomey had violated the False Claims Act and Stark Law by filing more than 21,000 false...
