Shelley R. Slade Testifies before House Judiciary Committee
on Proposed Amendments to the Federal False Claims Act

Washington, DC, June 19, 2008 - Shelley R. Slade, a partner in the law firm of Vogel, Slade & Goldstein, LLP, testified today before two subcommittees of the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Representatives in support of H.R. 4854, "The False Claims Act Correction Act of 2007." Attorney Slade spoke as a member of the qui tam plaintiffs' bar before the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, and the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. The Honorable John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, The Honorable Howard Berman (D-CA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, and The Honorable Linda T. Sanchez (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, presided over the hearing.

In her oral testimony, after noting that the False Claims Act (FCA) has been a resounding success, returning over $20 billion to the Treasury since 1986, Ms. Slade emphasized that qui tam plaintiffs have been the key to its success:

In most cases, only an informant from the inside will produce the smoking gun that conclusively establishes liability. Moreover, time and time again, it has been the relentless, zealous pursuit of qui tam litigation by qui tam plaintiffs and their counsel that has played a major role in the large FCA recoveries that we read about in the paper.

Ms. Slade testified about several ways in which H.R. 4854 improves the FCA to correct court decisions that have eroded the effectiveness of the Act. She noted that a recent Supreme Court decision demonstrates that the law must be amended to permit recovery from those who submit false claims to the "shadow government of government contractors" that perform many inherently governmental functions. Ms. Slade urged Congress to refocus the Act on its original intent -- reclaiming taxpayer dollars regardless of whether those funds are paid directly by the Government or are disbursed by a third party. Ms. Slade also testified that the Act should be clarified to permit a relator with substantive and detailed knowledge of a fraudulent scheme to bring a False Claims Act suit against a defendant, even when he or she does not access to the actual billing documentation at the start of the case. Several court decisions have dismissed qui tam cases on the ground that the relator was not a member of the billing department, and consequently lacked access to the claims data.

The other witnesses on the panel were Albert Campbell, a former whistleblower and current member of the Board of Directors of Taxpayers Against Fraud, James B. Helmer, Jr., Esq., the lead attorney in the recently decided Supreme Court case, Allison Engine Co. v. U.S. ex rel. Sanders, and Peter B. Hutt, II, Esq., an attorney representing the defense bar. Ms. Slade submitted written testimony as well.