After dipping just below $3 billion the year before, federal
False Claims Act (FCA) recoveries rebounded in Fiscal Year 2019 to
just over $3 billion. More than 600 new qui tam suits were filed
for the ninth year in a row, and government-initiated complaints
rose from 123 to 146. As usual, healthcare cases accounted for the
bulk of awards, at $2.6 billion. Cases against pharmaceutical
companies made up nearly three-quarters of that total. The value of
judgments and settlements in Department of Defense matters more
than doubled, to more than $252 million, while the similar figure
for cases involving neither healthcare nor defense dropped from
$260 million to just under $200 million.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a number of importance
guidance documents in 2019—some codified in the
Department's Justice Manual—that can assist FCA defense
counsel in negotiating with the Department. They concerned (i) the
manner in which DOJ will reward defendants who cooperate
