In a webinar held on July 19, partners John Elwood, head of the firm's Appellate and Supreme Court practice, and co-chairs of the firm's False Claims Act practice, Tirzah Lollar, Craig Margolis, and Michael Rogoff discussed two FCA cases at the Supreme Court. This is the first time in recent history that the Supreme Court has granted cert in two different FCA cases. In U.S. ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu, Inc. and U.S. ex rel. Proctor v. Safeway, Inc., the Court addressed the scienter, or knowledge, requirement under the FCA, finding that a defendant's actual knowledge or beliefs is always relevant. In U.S. ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc., the Court outlined the scope of the government's authority to move to dismiss a non-intervened qui tam when the government did not intervene before the case was unsealed.
Both cases have attracted significant attention from the government and the FCA bar given the importance of the issues. John, Tirzah, Craig, and Michael summarized the cases, identified key takeaways for industry, discussed the questions left unanswered by the Supreme Court, and provided updates on hot topics such as causation under the FCA and DOJ's Civil Cyber-Fraud initiative. The full recording of the webinar is available here.
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