In many cases, you’ll need economists and accountants to help you calculate what the damages to the government may have been. The type of experts you’ll need will depend upon the field or the business of the contractor. For example, if you have a military contractor, you’re probably going to need at least one expert that deals in that specific arena that the military contractor deals in so that he or she can help assist the trier of fact in understanding why the claims were actually fraudulent.

The expert will determine how the company does its business on a normal basis, how companies like that do their business on a normal basis and how and why the company in this particular instance has misled or been deceitful.

In Medicare cases, you’ll need an industry expert from the inside – someone who is familiar with Medicare regulations and how hospitals, doctors and nurses work. The expert will need to understand billing so that he or she can say that the company should have never billed X, Y, Z code for that procedure. That’s very important in these types of cases as the trier of fact needs to understand how the process works.

Who pays the experts?

The use of experts in a case can be very expensive. We asked Golston to explain who pays for these experts. He told us, “Our firm typically handles these cases on a contingency fee basis, so we front the costs for the experts. The plaintiff doesn’t have to pay anything out of his pocket. However, at the end of the litigation, if there’s a recovery, we recoup those expenses. We recoup our expenses for the experts, recoup the expenses that we put forward in litigation and then we collect our contingent fee.”

Golston’s firm doesn’t charge a consultation fee either. He says that, “After contacting our firm, we talk to clients about their issue, learn more about it and do an investigation. If we think there’s something there, then we start the process of filing a lawsuit.” However, before that occurs, Golston warns that a disclosure statement must be filed with the government. The statement is a factual synopsis about the proposed lawsuit that is sent to the Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney in the district where you plan on filing the suit.

If you believe that you may have a Qui Tam lawsuit, contact an attorney whose practice focuses in this area of the law. Consultations are free, without obligation and are strictly confidential. To contact an experienced attorney, please click here.