August 21, 2018
In The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), Phillips & Cohen attorney Peter Chatfield discusses qui tam lawsuits and a client’s whistleblower case alleging kickbacks by several blood-testing laboratories that went to trial in SC.
Peter Chatfield, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who often represents whistleblowers, said private lawyers like to file these cases in districts where they know government attorneys have the expertise and interest to take on the lawsuits. Increasingly, South Carolina is fitting that description, he said.
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“It’s extraordinarily rare for a False Claims Act to go to trial in general,” said Chatfield, who represented Mayes. “They weren’t seriously willing to talk about compromise and settlement.”