More than 900 Whistle-Blower Cases Caught in DOJ Backlog
The Justice Department can’t keep up with hundreds of whistle-blower cases that allege contractors and drug companies overcharged or defrauded the federal government.
More than 900 cases are “languishing in a backlog that has built up over the last decade,” the Washington Post reports. Litigants often must wait 14 months before learning whether the Justice Department will intervene and take over the civil litigation.
Whistle-blower suits are usually filed under seal while the Justice Department reviews the allegations, the ABA Journal noted in an article about the False Claims Act, which governs the suits.
Help from the Justice Department can help expose complicated fraud schemes, while delays in the department’s review can result in lost evidence, the story says.
Cincinnati lawyer Frederick Morgan Jr., who represents whistle-blowers, told the Post that fewer lawyers are willing to take on cases involving defense contractors because of the slow pace of Justice’s decision-making.
The 75-lawyer unit that reviews the cases investigates about 100 cases a year and rejects about three-quarters of them. Successful suits have recovered nearly $13 billion for U.S. taxpayers while also rewarding the whistle-blower with awards as high as 20 percent of the recovery.
