The FCA’s public disclosure bar precludes liability when a relator’s allegations have been publicly disclosed in a list of statutorily enumerated sources. Last week, the First Circuit added to the growing jurisprudence both interpreting the bar and an exception to the bar: the original source exception. In United States ex rel. Winkelman v. CVS Caremark Corp., No. 15-1991 (June 30, 2016), the relators filed suit...
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a district court’s dismissal of a qui tam action under the oft-litigated, “public disclosure bar,” where the transactions that gave rise to an inference of fraud were “available” on the internet. See United States ex rel Oliver v. Phillip Morris USA Inc., No. 15-7049 (D.C. Cir. June 21, 2016). The public disclosure bar...
For 23 years, the Ninth Circuit required that a relator establish three elements to qualify as an “original source” under the False Claims Act: (1) the relator must have direct and independent knowledge of the information on which her allegations are based; (2) the relator must have voluntarily provided that information to the government before filing her qui tam lawsuit; and (3) the relator must...
