Photo of Nicolas E. Briscoe

Nicolas Briscoe is an associate in the firm’s Litigation and Government Enforcement & Investigations practice groups.

Two recent settlements reached between federal antitrust authorities and antitrust defendants highlight that the federal government is open to settlements in which the defendants agree to curb allegedly anticompetitive conduct. The government publicly tallies the resolution as a win, and companies get out of tricky situations by following through on or expanding compliance initiatives already

On Friday, the Eleventh Circuit heard oral arguments in United States ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC regarding the constitutionality of the qui tam provisions in the False Claims Act, which allow private persons, known as relators, to file civil enforcement actions for violations of the FCA. The panel consisted of Trump-appointed Judges

It has long been the law of the Eleventh Circuit that, under the False Claims Act (FCA) and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b), a relator must provide sufficient “indicia of reliability … to support the allegation of an actual false claim for payment being made to the government.” U.S. ex rel. Clausen v. Laboratory