Looking For Info About The Federal Whistleblower Statute?The Federal Whistleblower Statute is included in a wide range of laws, governing activities ranging from employee safety to environmental protection. The first Federal Whistleblower Statute is the Federal Whistleblower Statute. Since its introduction back in 1863, the False Claims Act has undergone serious changes. In 1986, the act was revised and strengthened making it the federal whistleblower statute. As a result of that, the FCA fraud reports have increased from an average of six per year pre-revision to 450 per year in 1998. All lawsuits brought under the FCA are referred to as "Qui Tam" actions. According to the new changes of the FCA in 2002, a whistleblower can earn between 25 and 30 percent of all money recovered as a result of the lawsuit, the government decides not to join in the lawsuit. If the government does join the lawsuit, the whistleblower can net between 15 and 25 percent of the total proceeds of the suit. As stated in the FCA, a company found guilty of defrauding the federal government can be fined from a minimum of $5,000 to a maximum of $10,000 for each violation. In addition to that, the given business must pay three times the amount of the damages sustained by the government due to the violation. It turns out that such False Claim Acts can be quite lucrative. Since 1986, 3 billion dollars have been recovered, with the average recovery in any FCA case being in the range of 5-6 million dollars, while the reward for the whistleblower is about $1 million. State whistleblower statutes differ from federal whistleblower statutes in several very important characteristics. With just a few exceptions, state whistleblower statutes do not follow the compensation model of the federal False Claims Act. Those exceptions are Illinois, Florida, Oregon, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. Only Illinois and Florida provide compensation for whistleblowers anywhere near what the federal law provides, with the other three states providing less satisfactory compensation. So there is a conflict between federal and state whistleblower laws and to resolve it, the rule is that federal laws preempt the state laws. In addition to the state laws listed below, there are numerous federal laws with whistleblower protections that apply to public and private employers. An overview of federal provisions can be found on the U.S. Dept. of Labor website at: http://www.dol.gov/dol/compliance/comp-whistleblower.htm. For a complete list of the State Whistleblower Laws, go to http://www.ncsl.org/programs/employ/whistleblower.htm. According to statistics and reports of different attorneys, retaliation is the main reason why a former employee becomes a whistleblower. But it's not enough to hire an attorney and to file a lawsuit like that. Lawyers are just a legal representation but the case can be taken to court depends on the evidence. The rewards from settlements have increased tremendously. |