Court Refuses To Reconsider Bifurcation Order

We previously posted on the U.S. Department of Justice's motion for reconsideration of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama's order bifurcating the element of falsity from scienter (and the other False Claims Act (FCA) elements) at trial in U.S. ex rel. Paradies v. Aseracare, Inc. Last Thursday, the court denied the motion for reconsideration. The court was unpersuaded by DOJ's contention that bifurcation had never been done before in an FCA case. "Just because a trial technique has never been done does not preclude the court from using its discretion to do so."  The court also noted—perhaps turning DOJ's "never been done before argument" against it—that "[t]he parties have not directed the court to any other False Claims Act trial involving a [M]edicare hospice benefit."