A cardinal rule of a qui tam action brought under the
False Claims Act is that the relator must be the information's
original source.
In United States ex rel.
Heath v. Wisconsin Bell, Inc., No. 12-3383 (7th Cir. July 28,
2014), the Seventh Circuit grappled with this bar on the use of
publicly disclosed information, refusing to apply it in a case
involving the amounts Wisconsin Bell charged to Wisconsin school
districts for phone service. (The Affordable Care Act modified this rule
somewhat, but the change was not retroactive, so the court applied
the law that was in effect before the Affordable Care Act became
law.)
Certain Wisconsin school districts employed the relator, Heath,
to audit their telecommunications bills. Understanding why requires
a brief explanation of the Education Rate Program. The program is a
federal subsidy created by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It
subsidizes telecommunication services for qualifying school
districts, but it requires
