Phillips & Cohen partner Peter Chatfield is quoted in Modern Healthcare’s overview of the unanimous May 13 Supreme Court ruling in Cochise Consultancy v. U.S. ex rel. Hunt, which grants whistleblowers a longer period of time to file False Claims Act lawsuits in cases that the government does not join.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling means that more non-intervened qui tam cases and claims will survive defense efforts to stop them based on the timing of the potential whistleblower’s knowledge of misconduct rather than on the knowledge of actual government officials,” said Peter Chatfield, a whistleblower attorney and partner with Phillips & Cohen in Washington.
He added that defendants now could be held liable for more damages in cases in which the government does not intervene.