Zachary Kitts
Zachary Kitts is a founding partner at K&G Law Group, PLLC, where he concentrates his practice in the areas of qui tam litigation under the False Claims Act, employment law, business torts, and other complex civil litigation matters. In total, Zach's false claims act cases have returned more than $118 million to federal, state, and local governments. Zach has been involved in a number of precedent-setting false claims act cases against banks and financial services companies, healthcare providers, defense contractors, and others.
Regarding liability under the Federal False Claims Act and the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act–its the “Sneaking Around” that gets you into trouble
The standards for liability under the FCA and the VFATA are quite different from under other causes of action. This blog post focuses on one of my personal favorite FCA opinions:
Young-Montenay, Inc. v. United States, 15 F.3d 1040 (Fed. Cir. 1994).
If anyone were to assemble a case book of important decisions delineating the principles of the Federal False Claims Act, Young-Montenay would be at the very top of the list. Why?
Because I do …
A refreshed look at the pleading standards for Complaints….and Affirmative Defenses
Everyone knows by now that the U.S. Supreme Court has recently spoken on the topic of the pleading standards of Fed. R. Civ. P. 8 and instituted a “plausibility” pleading standard in the case of Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, […]
Is UVa Allowing a Political Bias to Inhibit Cooperation with the Virginia Attorney General?
First, let me say that this is not a political blog. This is a blog dealing with the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act and with litigation under the Federal False Claims Act in Virginia Courts. Let me also say that […]
Breaking News: The Dodd-Frank Conference Report on Amendments to the anti-retaliation provisions of the Federal False Claims Act
Last Friday evening, the
Truly, there is nothing new under the sun….including the reasons UVa seeks to quash the Civil Investigative Demand issued by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli
Lest anyone think that the debate about Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s quash and/or set aside the CIDs in the Circuit Court for the County of Albemarle, Virginia. This is shaping up to be an interesting fight, because this is the very first […]
Cuccinelli Investigates Grant Fraud at the University of Virginia
The D.C. Examiner has a story today about Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issuing a Civil Investigative Demand (“CID”) to the University of Virginia as part of an investigation into grant fraud. You can read Bill Flook’s excellent story here. […]
Senator Grassley Sends a Warning to State Legislatures Across the Country
As more states struggle to pass state-level false claims act legislation, I have mentioned recently that PhRMA and other health care lobbyists seem to have switched their tactics. Simply put, as more and more states come on board and reap […]
New Opinion on Reasonable Attorney’s Fees in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
Today Judge Cacheris issued a favorable opinion on my petition for attorney’s fees in a Fair Labor Standards Act case. Although the case was an FLSA case and not a False Claims Act case, the same concepts apply to any prevailing plaintiff in […]
My apologies for posting this important news so late…..
The power to dismiss a case based on the public disclosure bar (found at 31 U.S.C. 3730(e)(4)(A))is back in the hands of the Department of Justice; also, The “original source” exception to the public disclosure bar is expanded by the PPACA to include any relator who can add “knowledge that is independent of and materially adds to the publicly disclosed allegations or transactions.”
PPACA makes it clear that retention of overpayments by health care providers is unlawful, and lays down strict new guidelines for the return of overpayments.