False Claims Law

A whistleblower is a person who alerts others of fraudulent behavior or other wrongdoings being committed at his or her place of work. This wrong could be a specific law being broken. It could be a financial fraud being perpetrated. It could be a safety violation that has taken place. It could even be something the whistleblower views as a threat to the public.

Reporting a Fraud

Whistleblowing can be both internal and external. Internally, complaints can be made to other people within same the organization the complaints are about. Externally, the complaints can be made to the police, government regulators, or the media. The main motivation for whistleblowing is doing the right thing to help others who may end up being harmed by the wrong doing that was witnessed. Unfortunately, whistleblowing entails a large risk. That risk is reprisal.

Employer Retaliation

Reprisal can take many forms. It can result in being fired. Other times, it may take the form of a demotion or the wages of the whistleblower being garnished. In other cases, it can be acted out by co-workers who ostracize the whistleblower. Whistleblowers may even be persecuted at work by co-workers and supervisors to the point where they are literally forced to quit their jobs.

Whistleblower Protection

Fortunately, protections for whistleblowers exist in almost every state. However, due to how current whistleblowing laws are written at the state and the federal levels, it can be very confusing and very difficult for a novice to navigate.

The first protections for whistleblowers were enacted into federal law in 1912. Since then, numerous laws have been enacted. Due to political interests in different parts of the country, namely those who wish to protect the interests of business or the government, not all of these laws are exactly consistent across industries and state lines.

For example, in the relatively regulation lax Arizona, a whistleblower only has ten days to file a complaint regarding a “prohibited personnel practice” to state regulators. Other parts of the country may not be so harsh. However, there are usually strict time limits. For whistleblowers who witnessed environmental wrongdoings, they only have 30 days to file a written complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Those filing complaints about reprisal for whistleblowing or other civil rights violations have 45 days to report to an Equal Employment Opportunity office.

Whistleblower Compensation

Still, despite these obstacles, it’s possible for whistleblowers to seek and win compensation from the fallout from their whistle blowing on the wrong doings or illegalities they witnessed. The government knows that whistleblowers make a great sacrifice for the public good. With this in mind, they enacted something called “false claims law.” This law allows whistleblowers to receive massive rewards, sometimes up to 25 percent of the amount of money the government recovers as a result of a person’s whistleblowing on the fraud perpetrated by a government contractor.

However, due to the extreme complexities of the law, it may be wise to first contact a law-firm experienced with whistleblowing lawsuits before you take any serious action.