In the wee hours of December 21, 2020, Congress passed a COVID-19 stimulus package following months of wrangling and stalemates. After nearly a week and much criticism, President Trump signed the bill into law. Despite its massive length—almost 5,600 pages—, the bill falls far short of fully meeting the urgent needs of American workers. Congress last provided relief in late…
On December 1, 2020, the Council of the District of Columbia passed the False Claims Amendment Act of 2020, B23-0035 (the “Amendment”).[1] The Amendment extends the reach of DC’s existing False Claims Act to also cover tax fraud—a type of fraud that was previously excluded. This change means that whistleblowers will become able bring a qui tam suit against tax fraudsters, which they…
We are workers’ rights lawyers pursuing a Private Attorney General Act enforcement action against Aurora Santa Rosa and Signature Healthcare for California Labor Code violations occurring from April 2016 to the present. In this whistleblower lawsuit, our client, Plaintiff Teresa Brooke, is seeking an award of monetary penalties on behalf of Aurora/Signature employees and the State of California. In addition, she seeks what is…
A recent False Claims Act settlement against a charter school demonstrates that schools and tech companies may violate the law if they engage in bid-rigging and kickbacks during the procurement process. Concept Schools, NFP, a charter school company based in Illinois, agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle claims by the Government that Concept Schools rigged the bidding for its technology vendor…
According to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, it is illegal to discriminate against or treat an older employee less favorably because of his/her age – this includes hiring, firing, job assignments, fringe benefits, and any other condition of employment. But even though age discrimination in the workplace is illegal, it’s still a major problem in the U.S. today, especially in…
A qui tam case can be brought against a government contractor, such as a defense contractor, for violating its contract with the government. Defense contractor fraud is considered one of the most active areas of whistleblower litigation since the government spends billions of dollars on defense contracts with companies around the world. Some of the more common ways a defense contractor can…
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently voted to accept long-anticipated revisions to the rules governing its whistleblower program. While not all of the changes present a boon to whistleblowers, one modification clearly does—because under revised Rule 21-F6, there is now a presumption that, for many awards, the SEC will pay a whistleblower the statutory maximum award of 30 percent…
According to the terms of the Settlement as ordered by the Court, the monetary awards for back pay (or lost wages) were subject to all applicable tax withholdings. Monetary awards for compensatory damages were not treated as lost wages and therefore were subject to reporting on IRS Form 1099. We cannot provide tax advice regarding Class Members’ settlement awards or…
On June 29, 2018, secured final approval of a $4 million class settlement reached in April 2017 for female sales force members of Forest Laboratories and Forest Pharmaceuticals (“Forest”). Judge Ronnie Abrams’ order in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York was the capstone of six years of litigation in Barrett et al v. Forest Laboratories, Inc., et…
We three, Anna McNeil, Ry Walker, and Ellie Singer are all current undergraduate students at Yale University, and we have all experienced sexual assault and harassment at Yale’s all-male fraternities. We are not alone. We believe many female and non-binary students have been sexually assaulted, groped, grabbed, grinded up against, verbally harassed, leered at, and denied admission based on their…