This article gives you tips for finding and selecting a whistle blower attorney to apply for a reward for reporting fraud against the government. To be eligible for a reward, you must find and select a whistle blower attorney and have that law firm file your reward application under the government’s False Claims Act whistle blower reward program. Choosing your whistle blower attorney is one of the biggest decisions you face. This article gives you some tips on what to look for and how to find and select your whistle blower attorney.
Tips about the whistle blower reward program
The Department of Justice has a whistle blower reward program that pays a whistle blower reward of between 15-25% of the amount the government recovers for you hiring a whistle blower attorney and filing a qui tam whistle blower lawsuit under the False Claims Act. There are a few reasons why it is so important to select an experienced whistle blower attorney.
First, the average reward paid to whistle blowers is $1 million. Therefore, there is a lot at stake.
Second, only 20% of whistle blowers receive a reward. That’s because the whistle blower reward program is complex and the government turns away any application that does not comply with its formal or informal procedures or properly state the details of the supporting data to prove the alleged fraud against the government.
For these two reasons alone, selecting your whistle blower attorney can be one of the most important decisions you must make.
Roles of your whistle blower attorney
There are many critical roles played by your whistle blower attorney.
First your whistle blower attorney must know how to properly assess and develop your whistle blower reward application. Your whistle blower attorney must be very familiar with the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act because the qui tam reward statute is very complicated and there are many landmines to avoid. At a minimum, you should select a whistle blower attorney that has handled many qui tam False Claims Act cases.
Second, your whistle blower attorney needs to understand the informal processes used by the Department of Justice in paying whistle blower rewards, and your whistle blower attorney needs to carefully follow all of the government practices and procedures for claiming a whistle blower reward. A single mistake could render you ineligible for a whistle blower reward.
Ideally, your whistle blower attorney should have experience working for the Civil Fraud Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, D.C. which is the nationwide government office overseeing the qui tam whistleblower reward program. Even if your whistle blower attorney did not work for the Civil Fraud Section of DOJ or a local U.S. Attorney’s Office that often handles these cases jointly with DOJ, your whistle blower attorney must have a good relationship with the attorneys from these government offices that will be handling your case. Your whistle blower attorney not only needs to file a complex qui tam lawsuit, but must convince DOJ to intervene or take the case. Later, your whistle blower attorney will also need to negotiate with the DOJ attorneys the amount of any qui tam award.
Third, selecting your whistle blower attorney involves a matter of personal preference. Because the average qui tam case lasts at least 3 years, you should be communicating a lot with your whistle blower attorney. Certainly you want to have confidence in your whistle blower attorney when they make assessments of your case. But you also should respect and even like your whistle blower attorney. For instance, you should not feel bad about contacting them with questions. Your whistle blower attorney’s role should not simply be providing legal advice, but should also be caring and mindful of the human aspects of representing a whistleblower. Therefore, do your homework when determining how to find and select the right whistle blower attorney for your whistleblower reward case under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.
How to ask The Hesch Firm to consider becoming your whistle blower attorney
The Hesch Firm would be pleased to review in complete confidence your potential whistle blower reward case. This website contains the extensive experience of Mr. Hesch as an attorney working for the Civil Fraud Section of DOJ in the whistle blower reward office and more recently acting as a whistle blower attorney helping whistle blowers collect rewards. Mr. Hesch left a rewarding 15-year career with DOJ to form The Hesch Firm and exclusively represent whistle blowers file for rewards. He has also written books to guide whistle blowers through this process.
See the link at the very top of the website page “About Us” to learn more about Mr. Hesch and his firm.
See the link at the bottom of the page below “Do I have a case” to have Mr. Hesch review your potential whistle blower reward case. See the link at the bottom of the page below “Report Fraud” to learn more about the government’s whistle blower reward program.
Find out if The Hesch Firm is right for you.
Click on this link to read this article in pdf format: Tips to find a whistle blower Attorney to get a reward for reporting fraud PDF version