It does not happen often, but occasionally someone will stumble onto evidence that suggests that a powerful company or a government agency is breaking the law in Las Vegas, Nevada. When they do find that evidence, they will often dig a little deeper to see if it is an indication of wrongdoing. If their search confirms their suspicions, that person will have to make a huge decision: Whether to let it be or blow the whistle on it and report fraud.
If you decide to become a whistleblower, the first thing that you will need is an experienced whistleblower lawyer. The odds are extremely small that you have first-hand experience bringing this sort of damning information to light before, and there are countless pitfalls that you can stumble into that could end your case before it even begins. By hiring an attorney, you can tap into the wealth of knowledge that they have accumulated in helping other people with whistleblower protections who were in similar situations to your own. This can be a huge help in your attempts to bring the evidence to light, and can also ensure that you recover the whistleblower reward that you are entitled to receive.
Here are three things to keep in mind when looking for whistleblower attorneys in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1. Get a Lawyer Who is Familiar With the Subject Matter
Whistleblower law is less of a particular legal field than it is a process of enforcing the law. Rather than law enforcement agencies initiating an investigation and pursuing either criminal or civil liability for wrongdoing, it is an ordinary citizen who brings the results of their preliminary investigation to state or federal agents. The relevant agency will then decide whether to take over the investigation or to let the whistleblower continue to pursue the qui tam claims on their own.
Because of this aspect of the law, you need an attorney who understands both:
- Whistleblower law (including the False Claims Act), and
- The subject matter present in your case.
This is best represented with an example.
Federal laws provide a process for private whistleblowers to report suspected misconduct in a variety of fields. Just a few of the most common are for wrongdoing related to:
- Securities fraud
- Tax fraud
- Environmental violations
- Healthcare fraud
- Accounting fraud
If you have discovered evidence that your employer is violating federal environmental regulations by releasing pollutants into protected waterways and then covering it up, you need a lawyer who intimately understands those environmental regulations as well as the practical issues surrounding the pollution and how to report it to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Qui tam lawyers are going to be much more of a help in your qui tam lawsuit than an attorney with experience – even extensive experience – representing whistleblowers who report evidence of healthcare providers defrauding federal insurers to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
You can find indications of that subject matter expertise in an attorney’s:
- Prior case results
- Published articles about federal law
- Online marketing materials, if they show a strong understanding of your field
- Undergraduate or graduate degrees
- Prior work experience in your field
- Professional associations or references
2. It Often Takes a Large Law Firm to Complete a Whistleblower Case
Generally speaking, whistleblower cases start in the same manner:
- You find evidence of misconduct
- You investigate further and confirm your suspicions
- You hire a whistleblower attorney
- Your lawyer helps you gather more evidence of misconduct
- Once your attorney believes that you have a strong case, he or she will reach out to the relevant federal agency to inform them of what you have found
- Your committed legal team will arrange a meeting where your lawyer presents your case to federal agents
At this point, one of two things can happen:
- The federal agency agrees to intervene in your case and takes over the investigation, or
- The agency declines to intervene, leaving it up to you to see the case through to the end.
Typically, the goal of a whistleblower case is to get the federal government to intervene. While the whistleblower reward will be slightly lower, you get the resources of an entire federal agency involved in your case. While you may still get called upon to provide additional information on whistleblower claims, the government will do most of the work.
However, intervention is not guaranteed and you need to prepare for that possibility.
This is why most whistleblowers are best served by large law firms with numerous lawyers and talented investigators dedicated to representing whistleblowers. These firms can conduct the investigation necessary to complete a strong whistleblower claim if the federal agency with jurisdiction to pursue your case decides to sit it out. Whistleblowers who hire a smaller whistleblower law firm tend to find themselves in the difficult spot where their firm cannot move the case forward, all while the whistleblower deals with the adverse repercussions that come with blowing the whistle on their employer.
3. You Really Need to Be Able to Trust Your Whistleblower Attorney
You always need to be able to feel like you can trust your lawyer, no matter what legal situation you are going through. However, it is far more important in whistleblower cases.
Gathering evidence of corporate misconduct is probably not something that you have done before. You need to feel like you can trust the advice of your lawyer on how to go about finding evidence relevant to your claim while still protecting yourself and your future.
As Dr. Nick Oberheiden, founding partner of the national whistleblowing law firm Oberheiden P.C., tells interested clients, “Only a small part of a whistleblower attorney’s advice to you over the course of your case will be legal advice. Most of it will be practical advice about how to proceed in a way that gathers the evidence that you need in order to build a strong case while still avoiding the bad repercussions of blowing the whistle on wrongful conduct. This requires a balance of interests – overreaching for evidence to build your case can lead to you getting discovered, and that can lead to your termination or, at the very least, losing your access to the incriminating information. Either outcome can doom your case. On the other hand, not taking any risks will likely prolong the case or slow it to a crawl. You need to be able to trust your lawyer to strike that balance.”
