Government contractors should take note of a March 4, 2020, ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that lowers the jurisdictional threshold for establishing a claim under the False Claims Act. The 3rd Circuit’s decision in Druding v. Care Alternatives revived an FCA claim that the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey rejected through a grant of summary judgment. At the lower court, experts retained by the plaintiff and defendant disagreed about the factual basis of the alleged false claim. Confronted by this disagreement, the District Court ruled that “a mere difference of opinion between experts regarding the accuracy” of the claim at issue was “insufficient to create a triable dispute of fact as to the element of falsity.” The District Court opined that to meet the jurisdictional threshold, a plaintiff under the FCA must provide “evidence of an objective falsehood.”
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3rd Circuit Case of First Impression Clarifies Lower Threshold for FCA Actions
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