The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that suits brought under the U.S. False Claims Act by whistleblowers, in which the government does not intervene, are not subject to a shorter statute of limitations than suits in which the government does intervene.

Under the False Claims Act, a whistleblower must file suit either six years from when the fraud is committed or “three years after the United States knows or should know about the material facts, whichever comes later (so long as the action is filed within ten years of the alleged fraud)” (See 31 U.S.C. § 3731(b)). The question addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court is whether – and to what extent – the provision extending the False Claims Act from six to ten years applies when the government does not intervene in an action filed on its behalf by a whistleblower.

The Court unanimously held that: (1) a whistleblower in a non-intervened case can take advantage of the six-to-ten year statute of limitations extension (depending on when a government official first knew or should have known about the fraud), and (2) a whistleblower is not a “government official” for purposes of answering this question.

Click here for the opinion in Cochise Consultancy Inc. v. United States, ex rel. Hunt

Click here for an article on the decision.