Lawyers USA Quotes The Employment Law Group® Principal Dave Scher on Recent Rise in Whistleblower Claims

Dave Scher, Principal of The Employment Law Group® law firm, was recently interviewed and quoted by Lawyers USA, a national newspaper focused on news and trends in litigation, as well as law practice management.

Commenting on recent media attention given to corporate rule-breaking and the employees who report it, Mr. Scher noted that “[as] retaliation claims become more and more prevalent, whistleblower type claims are expanding.”

Indeed, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that it recovered a record-setting $3 billion in False Claims Act settlements for fiscal year 2011, bringing the total recovered since 2009 to $8.7 billion. Similarly, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last month that federal agencies succeeded in recovering over $4 billion in fraudulent healthcare payments in 2011.

Noting the variety of whistleblower statutes under federal and state law, Mr. Scher said that the difficulty faced by whistleblowers seeking to bring lawsuits for retaliation against their employers often depends on state laws that specifically cover the conduct reported by whistleblowers. For example, in Virginia, Mr. Scher commented that “you have to have an express statute” and that “[it’s] very, very difficult” to link reported conduct to a covered activity.

The article, entitled “Whistleblower Claims Fueled by Unemployment”, appeared in the February 2012 edition of Lawyers USA.

The Employment Law Group® law firm has an extensive nationwide whistleblower practice  representing employees who have been victims of retaliation.

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