Qui Tam Attorneys

Qui tam attorneys are people who represent private plaintiffs, such as a whistleblowers, who are empowered by some law to sue in the name of the government. For example, the False Claims Act allows whistleblowers with original information about fraud committed against the government to sue a company in the government’s name. The government then has a the choice of intervening and taking over the lawsuit filed in its name, or declining to intervene, in which case the whistleblower can litigate the case on his or her own (with the help of their qui tam attorney) in the government’s stead.

The term “qui tam” comes from the Latin phrase:

qui tam pro domino rege, quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur,

which means “he who sues on behalf of the state, as well as himself.”

A whistleblower who brings a qui tam lawsuit on behalf of the government is called a “relator.” Qui tam lawsuits have a case caption that denotes that the relator is suing on behalf of the government. For example:

United States ex rel. [the relator] v. [the defendant]

“Ex rel” translates literally to “on the relation/narration of,” so United States ex rel. [the relator] means that the lawsuit is in the name of the United States and is based on information from the relator, who is “relating” or narrating their story to show that the defendant defrauded the government. A qui tam attorney helps the relator assemble their story to make it as convincing as possible. And as a good qui tam lawyer will tell you, sometimes less is more when you’re drafting the complaint. Giving the reader information overload can be a real problem.