Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetNovartis Pharmaceuticals reached a settlement agreement totaling $422.5 million with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania regarding civil allegations under the False Claims Act and criminal allegations under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act relating to its misbranding of Trileptal®.  For information about The Employment Law Group® and its False Claims [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Office of Special Counsel stated in a press release that a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety inspector was correct when blowing the whistle on the FAA’s overlooking of safety violations at Erie Aviation, a repair station operator that services commercial airlines.  The Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st [...]

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TweetThe Senate unanimously approved Bill S.3717, which would repeal provisions in section 929I of the Dodd-Frank Act that grant confidentiality to SEC investigations of fraud committed by publicly-traded companies.  Under Section 929I, the SEC cannot be compelled to disclose information provided to the SEC by whistleblowers; however, the SEC must still comply with the information [...]

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TweetNew York recently amended its False Claims Act (FCA) by expanding the Act’s coverage and strengthening the Act’s whistleblower protections.  The New York FCA now applies to violations of New York tax law when the violator’s income from sales exceeds one million for the year in which the violation took place.  Furthermore, whistleblower protections are [...]

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TweetThe Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported to Congress its findings on the OSHA whistleblower program in its report titled “Whistleblower Protection: Sustained Management Attention Needed to Address Long-standing Program Weaknesses.”  The GAO concludes that OSHA has neglected its whistleblower program and has failed to implement GAO’s prior recommendations.  Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Patty Murray [...]

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TweetIn Kahn v. Dep’t of Justice, the Federal Circuit, relying on the Drake decision, held that a WPA plaintiff need not demonstrate that he blew the whistle on an actual violation of law: We reiterate, however, that “[t]he test is not whether [the petitioner] was able to prove [a violation], but rather could a disinterested [...]

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TweetIn Williams v. Basic Contracting Servs., Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia affirmed the broad scope of protected conduct under False Claims Act (FCA) by holding that a whistleblower who investigates alleged fraud committed by her employer is protected from retaliation under the FCA even if the whistleblower does [...]

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TweetOn September 1, 2010, Administrative Law Judge Robert Rae issued an order holding that a joint employer’s “‘ability to exercise control’ by hiring, transferring, promoting, reprimanding or discharging [a whistleblower], or the ‘ability to influence’ another employer to take such actions is sufficient to establish joint employer liability under the [Surface Transportation Assistance Act].”  The [...]

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TweetOn September 7, 2010, the Ethics Resource Center (ERC) published a study about internal disclosures of misconduct titled “Who’s Telling You What You Need to Know, Who Isn’t, and What You Can Do About It.”  According to the study: 1. Women tend to report more than men; 2. Members of unions are less likely to report than [...]

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TweetOSHA announced its new interim final rules for filing whistleblower complaints and invited the public to submit comments.  In a news release, OSHA stated: “When workers believe their employers are violating certain laws or government regulations, they have the right to file a complaint and should not fear retaliation. Silenced workers are not safe workers,” [...]

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TweetAccording to the Boston Globe, the White House announced that it will delay the release of a database containing records of contractor fraud and substandard performance, stating “legal and practical issues” must first be addressed.  The database, named the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System, was established in 2008 and includes information companies must [...]

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TweetOSHA has ordered Utah Transit Authority (UTA) to reinstate a whistleblower and pay more than $130,000 in back wages with interest and attorney’s fees.  According to the complaint, the UTA fired the whistleblower in retaliation for raising security concerns, which violates the Federal Railroad Safety Act. For more information about the firm’s Whistleblower Law Practice, [...]

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TweetAccording to the Washington Examiner, a D.C. jury awarded Sean McLaughlin damages for retaliation in violation of the DC Whistleblower Protection Act.  McLaughlin alleged D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, a district commander at the time, threatened police officers with “consequences” if they pursued their claims that the police department’s off-duty reimbursable overtime security detail at [...]

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TweetA Warren County Circuit held that a fraud investigator can sue her employer for wrongful discharge under Bowman when the employer interferes with her fraud investigations and subsequently fires her for appearing before a grand jury.  Click here for the full opinion. The employment lawyers at The Employment Law Firm® have extensive experience representing those [...]

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