Whistleblower Shares, Fees, and Payment: What the Settlement Means for Your Award

False Claims Act award payment comes from the recovery. The defendant pays the reasonable attorney fees and necessary expenses awarded under the law separately. If you know about fraud and wonder what a case could mean for you, your knowledge of the business matters alongside the documents. We work with you and False Claims Act whistleblower lawyers to connect that contribution to the case and its potential reward.

What Share Is Possible?

A whistleblower case under the False Claims Act can pay 15% to 30% of what the government recovers. The ordinary range is 15% to 25% when the government joins the case, and 25% to 30% when the whistleblower continues after the government declines.

When the government joins, how much the whistleblower contributed helps determine the percentage. That contribution can include explaining the business records, as the Verizon example below shows.

A qui tam case can produce separate agreements about the company’s settlement, the whistleblower’s share and payment for the legal work. We stay with you through those questions as part of the False Claims Act case process.

Which Claims Produced the Settlement?

The connection between the conduct exposed and the recovery is part of a whistleblower share dispute. We work through that connection with you and False Claims Act whistleblower counsel, starting with what the business records show.

Cisco Systems and its distributor Comstor illustrate why those records matter. The whistleblowers alleged that technology vendors paid kickbacks to consultants who recommended their products to the government. They also alleged that contractors failed to disclose accurate pricing information. Separately, the General Services Administration’s Inspector General audited Comstor’s contract and concluded that the distributor had made inaccurate or incomplete disclosures and failed to meet its price-reduction obligations.

Cisco and Comstor agreed to settle allegations involving undisclosed discounts, rebates and other pricing information that the government said had inflated contract prices. The sales arrangement, the discount records and the government contract were central to understanding the conduct at issue.

The Eighth Circuit’s 2015 decision on the share dispute looked at the connection between the whistleblowers’ allegations and the settled conduct. Its reasoning recognized that different legal labels can describe the same underlying facts. Explaining those facts is work for someone who understands how the business sold its products and priced its contracts.

When the government pursues a recovery through another proceeding, that connection also deserves attention. Our whistleblower experts and False Claims Act whistleblower counsel handle those questions with you.

Your Contribution Includes Explaining the Records

Contribution can include the expertise that makes billing records understandable. In the Verizon Communications share dispute, the court credited the whistleblower’s contract analysis, investigative priorities and help answering the company’s defenses. The government already possessed billing records. The whistleblower helped it understand the alleged overbilling described in those records.

The court also credited the work of False Claims Act whistleblower counsel despite the separate provision for fees under the law. Knowledge of the business and work advancing the case both mattered to the assessment.

The government had the bills. It needed someone who understood what they meant. That expertise belongs in the account of what the whistleblower contributed.

A Joint Award Has Its Own Allocation

When several whistleblowers share a recovery, the announced group award and each person’s allocation are separate figures. The Department of Justice’s HCA settlement announcement illustrates the difference. It announced a $100 million award jointly to two whistleblowers and separate awards to others involved in the cases.

That is a substantial award for bringing information forward. The announcement described what the pair would receive together. Their individual allocations were a separate question. We work with False Claims Act whistleblower counsel on the contribution and allocation issues that arise when more than one whistleblower is involved.

Who Pays the Attorney Fees?

The defendant pays the reasonable attorney fees, necessary expenses and costs awarded under the False Claims Act. Those payments are separate from the whistleblower’s share of the recovery. A private contingency-fee agreement with False Claims Act whistleblower counsel is a separate agreement too.

The Congressional Research Service’s 2009 report, Qui Tam: The False Claims Act and Related Federal Statutes, describes reasonable fees and expenses as an additional entitlement alongside the recovery share, both when the government participates and when it does not. The law recognizes the legal work separately from the whistleblower’s stake in the recovery.

Questions about upfront costs and how a fee agreement affects your award belong in the conversation about your case. Our whistleblower experts bring in False Claims Act whistleblower lawyers who can address those terms with you before you commit to an agreement.

Quorum Specified Separate Transfers for the Share and Fees

Quorum Health Group’s 2001 settlement agreement specified distinct payments to the government, to False Claims Act whistleblower counsel for fees and expenses, and from the government toward the whistleblower’s share. The case concerned alleged improper hospital cost-reporting practices.

The government payment included $77.5 million and an additional $5 million in principal. The agreement provided for an initial whistleblower’s share of 15% of the larger component after the government received Quorum’s settlement payment. Quorum owed the legal fees separately.

Those separate transfers put the distinction into practice. The company’s payment to resolve the allegations, its payment for legal work and the government’s payment toward the whistleblower’s share each had its own place in the agreement.

The Settlement Bill Could Not Go Back Into a Cost Report

Quorum’s agreement also addressed who would ultimately bear the cost. It treated the settlement payments and whistleblower fee payments as costs that could not be charged to government contracts, Medicare, Medicaid or TRICARE. It required separate accounting in cost centers that would not be reimbursed.

For someone in hospital finance, that is a concrete distinction between paying a settlement and putting the expense into a government reimbursement request. We see a straightforward principle here: taxpayers should not finance the company’s settlement bill through another claim for public money.

Biogen Separated Federal and State Proceeds

Biogen’s September 2022 settlement agreement divided the recovery between federal and state governments and left the whistleblower’s share to separate agreements. The whistleblower alleged that speaker payments, consulting payments and meals induced prescriptions that Medicare and Medicaid paid for. The federal government and the states had declined to join the case.

Biogen agreed to pay $900 million to resolve those allegations. The agreement directed payments to the federal and state governments, with the whistleblower’s share addressed in agreements with those governments.

It also preserved the whistleblower’s claim for reasonable legal fees, expenses and costs. Resolving the allegations and addressing the whistleblower’s financial interests were distinct parts of the settlement. We work through federal and state share questions with you and False Claims Act whistleblower counsel.

Payment After Settlement Has Its Own Terms

Payment after settlement is part of the agreement itself. Quorum tied its initial share payment to the government’s receipt of the settlement money. Biogen separately addressed the company’s payments, the share agreements and the fee claim.

For an insider weighing a case, these examples show why our work with you extends beyond explaining a reward percentage. We stay beside you as the evidence becomes a case and through the settlement, share and payment questions. Your contribution to the recovery deserves the same attention as the settlement announcement.

Your Contribution Deserves an Advocate

If you know about false billing or concealed pricing and want to understand what a whistleblower case could mean for you, speak with our whistleblower experts about what you have seen. We connect your knowledge of the business to the evidence, bring in False Claims Act whistleblower lawyers suited to your case, and stay beside you through the recovery and payment questions.