The U.S. Supreme Court soon will decide whether to tackle a longstanding question regarding the applicability of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) pleading standards in False Claims Act suits. To satisfy the rule’s particularity requirement, plaintiffs generally have needed to detail specific false claims submitted by defendants. The question is whether plaintiffs instead may plead the submission of false claims more generally, without identifying specific claims, if they provide sufficient reliable indicia that false claims were submitted.
Read on for details about this issue, particularly salient in cases where the government declines intervention and the whistleblower, often the defendant’s former employee, may not have access to the relevant invoices at issue.