How to find your False Claims Act Lawyer and apply for a whistleblower reward under the False Claims Act

This article addresses how to select your False Claims Act Lawyer. The whistleblower reward statute requires that you hire and use a False Claims Act lawyer in order to obtain a whistleblower reward under the federal and state False Claims Acts. Therefore it is important to know how to find and select the right False Claims Act lawyer.

The False Claims Act pays whistleblower rewards of 15-25% of what the government collects based on you hiring a lawyer to file your qui tam lawsuit. The average False Claims Act reward paid to whistleblowers is over $1 million. To apply for a reward, you must first hire a False Claims Act lawyer to file a civil lawsuit known as a qui tam action under the False Claims Act.

Because the government turns down nearly 80% of qui tam lawsuits, selecting the right False Claims Act lawyer can make a difference whether you waste three years and still receive no reward or if your hard work pays off. Of course, no respectable False Claims Act lawyer will make any promises and should tell you that past results do not guarantee future success.

When selecting your False Claims Act lawyer, be mindful that they must do several things very well. First, your False Claims Act lawyer must properly evaluate your case. Sometimes the best thing a False Claims Act lawyer can do is let you know that your do not have the type of case likely to receive a sizeable reward. Assuming you have the right type of a case, you still likely do not realize what information is key to receiving a reward, and it is your False Claims Act lawyer’s role to gather the right type of information.

Second, your False Claims Act lawyer must present your case in a convincing manner to get the attention of busy government workers. The government turns away 80% of whistleblower reward cases because the False Claims Act is complicated and there are many rules that must be strictly followed as well as pitfalls to avoid. Therefore you need to hire an experienced False Claims Act lawyer. At a minimum, you should select a lawyer that handled many False Claims Act cases.

Third, you should select a False Claims Act lawyer that has a good working relationship with the government attorneys that decide whether to take cases your case and are the ones who determine how much of a reward to pay you. The government office with nationwide authority over the qui tam reward provisions of the False Claims Act is the Civil Fraud Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, D.C. Does your lawyer have False Claims Act experience actually working in this DOJ office? Experience with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices can also be helpful because they also jointly handle with DOJ whistleblower cases filed in their jurisdiction. Even if your lawyer did not work for DOJ, you should still investigate whether they have a good relationship with the DOJ attorneys.

Remember, DOJ turns down 80% of qui tam reward applications. Therefore you should hire a False Claims Act lawyer that works towards having a good relationship with government attorneys instead of boasting about being aggressive, adversarial or demanding. Leave those promises to the attorneys doing television ads for personal injury cases.
Finally, you should select a False Claims Act lawyer based on human factors that only you can judge. Because it can take 3 years or more to get a False Claims Act whistleblower reward, you will be communicating a lot with your False Claims Act lawyer. Therefore, do your homework when determining how to find and select the right False Claims Act lawyer for your whistleblower reward case under the False Claims Act. Read their website, and especially their resume and biography to find out if they are what you are looking for in your False Claims Act lawyer.

Mr. Hesch would be pleased to review your potential case. You can read on this website his extensive experience working as a lawyer for DOJ on cases paying out whistleblower rewards before he left DOJ to be a lawyer representing whistleblowers.

Find out if Mr. Hesch and his team of lawyers that work with him on whistleblower reward cases are the right False Claims Act lawyers for you and your case.

See the link at the bottom of the page below “Do I have a case” to have Mr. Hesch review your potential whistleblower reward case and ask him to become your False Claims Act lawyer.

See the link at the bottom of the page below “Report Fraud” to learn more about the government’s whistleblower reward program and how to select your False Claims Act lawyer.

Click on this link to read this article in pdf format: How to find and select a False Claims Act Lawyer to represent you in filing a whistleblower reward case under the False Claims Act PDF version