
Types of False Claims Act Cases Filed in Hawaii
This page is a two-part series on the Hawaii whistleblower laws. Tony Munter speaks with attorney Thomas Grande about the Hawaii False Claims Act and the origins of this state legislation. Click here for Part 1.
*Tony Munter is not licensed to practice in Hawaii
Tony:
Thomas:
Our cases have followed that trend. We’ve had some early False Claims Act cases involving military installations. One of our cases was the first False Claims Act case for fraud on a foreign military base. That was a case in Korea that involved fraudulent installation of fire protection systems.
Thomas:
Tony:
Thomas:
qui tam
Tony:
Thomas:
Tony:
Thomas:
Again because of our physical isolation and the fact that everyone knows each other and we need to and do work together very, very well cooperatively.
I think one of the things that our cooperative relationship fosters is that we tend to bring cases to the feds and the states earlier than in other locations. I would rather bring a case earlier prefilling and have them assist us in working up the case rather than wait until the case is absolutely ready to go, lay it on their table and find out there are some wrinkles that we should have considered. Our local US Attorney’s office and our local state Attorney General’s office have been very, very cooperative in meeting with us and in conducting pre-filing investigations.
Tony:
Thomas:
Tony:
But it does seem like offices across the country are starting to get the idea that they should look at cases prior to filing. It sounds like Hawaii is a little ahead of everybody on that regard.
Thomas:
Tony:
Thomas:
Tony:
Thomas:
But it’s exciting work and I think it’s work that any attorney who does employment law or any attorney who does civil litigation can do. it’s an area to be looked at as a nice compliment to civil practice.