The Times They Are A’Changing – Or Are They? DOJ Announces It Will Move To Dismiss Qui Tam Complaints That Lack Merit

After months of signaling that a change to the Department of Justice’s qui tam practices was imminent, Michael Granston, Director of the Civil Fraud Section, announced the change during a presentation at the Health Care Compliance Association’s Health Care Enforcement Compliance Institute on October 30. The Department of Justice will now move to dismiss a qui tam complaint when it concludes that it lacks merit. Although announced as a means of conserving judicial and litigant resources, we also wonder if the apparent change is spurred by a concern over the creation of bad law under Escobar’s materiality standard is a driving force behind this decision. Given that DOJ rarely exercises its statutory authority to move to dismiss a qui tam complaint, it should not be difficult to ascertain whether DOJ’s announcement is, in fact, a sign of a real shift in its enforcement tactics.