Welcome to The Legal Brief Blog! Here I cover interesting developments in the law as well as my musings on mediation and arbitration. Feel free to browse around and use the search function below, or once you open an article, to find other posts of interest. I hope you enjoy it!
Ninth Circuit Affirms FCA Liability for Evasion of Antidumping Duties
Summary The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's judgment, holding that the False Claims Act (FCA) is a valid and available legal avenue for the federal government to recover antidumping duties that an importer has fraudulently evaded paying. The...
Eleventh Circuit Affirms Dismissal of False Claims Act Suit Based on Prior Public Disclosure
Summary The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a qui tam action brought under the False Claims Act against Jay Odom and the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners. The court agreed that the plaintiff, Robert Smith, was...
Sixth Circuit Holds Hospital Defendant Waived Right To Arbitrate
Summary The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court's decision to compel arbitration, holding that the defendant hospital and its administrators had forfeited their right to enforce the arbitration agreement.1 The court ruled that by litigating the...
Second Circuit Holds FAA Section 4 Does Not Empower Federal Courts To Compel Payment Of Arbitration Fees
Summary The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a district court's judgment that had ordered X Corp. (formerly Twitter, Inc.) to pay disputed arbitration fees in an ongoing arbitration proceeding. The Court held that a party's refusal to pay ongoing...
Medicare Advantage Organization Must Produce Non-Privileged Documents in False Claims Act Litigation
In the government’s long-running False Claims Act litigation against Anthem regarding its reporting of risk adjustment data for the Medicare Advantage program, the government filed a motion to compel regarding several documents that Anthem withheld from production on...
In International Arbitration, Who Decides Whether There Is An Agreement To Arbitrate?
In Hulley Enterprises Ltd. v. Russian Federation, the D.C. Circuit recently considered the role of U.S. courts in determining the existence of international arbitration agreements. The case arose out of a long-standing dispute over the expropriation of Yukos Oil...