So, you’ve received a third-party subpoena. Now what? A third-party subpoena is the procedural mechanism that allows parties in litigation to obtain evidence from non-party individuals and/or entities. For federal cases, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45 governs this process. Rule 45 outlines specific procedures that litigants must follow to serve a subpoena seeking documents and/or testimony properly. The Rule also provides protections non-parties can use to alleviate their burden in producing responsive documents. Most states have their own rules that govern non-party discovery that often, but not always, mirror Rule 45.

On October 8, 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1286 (AB 1286), a sweeping pharmacy measure with several components aimed at promoting patient safety. Chief among AB 1286’s mandates is a new law requiring that community pharmacies report outpatient medication errors to the California Board of Pharmacy. But beyond the mandatory reporting requirement, AB 1286 contains various other important provisions governing the practice of pharmacy in California.

Most experienced False Claims Act (FCA) practitioners are all too familiar with the statutory provision requiring defendants to pay whistleblowers’ attorneys’ fees at the end of FCA cases. What is less commonly known is the provision that grants defendants their attorneys’ fees in certain circumstances.

One whistleblower learned about that provision the hard way, when on March 14, 2024, a Mississippi federal judge ordered that he pay over $1 million to cover the defendants’ attorneys’ fees, following grant of summary judgment to defendants in what the judge labeled a “frivolous” qui tam. This blog post looks at the case that led to such a large attorneys’ fees award and considers the types of cases in which these efforts are wise.

U.S. Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) recently introduced a bill addressing cybersecurity protections and oversight in the healthcare industry. The Strengthening Cybersecurity in Health Care Act, introduced on February 8, 2024, aims to bolster a vulnerable and often-targeted industry against cyberattacks. The proposal follows a number of significant cyberattacks on healthcare organizations in recent years; Senator King noted that approximately 133 million people, or nearly one in three Americans, had their personal information compromised in 2023 alone.

In the United States, mental health (“MH”) and substance use disorder (“SUD”) (collectively “MH/SUD”) have continued to represent areas of intense concern. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the MH struggles of essential workers and health care professionals were pushed to the forefront. However, issues related to MH/SUD have continued to escalate.

Provider Relief Fund Update

Corporate defendants are frequently faced with a quandary—is the company’s highly sophisticated professional employee simply a fact witness or does their anticipated testimony propel them into the world of expert discovery? The individual knows the business inside and out, and typically has a comprehensive understanding of the entire industry, but the legal parameters of whether they qualify as a lay witness or expert witness in this context is not always clear. And either designation presents potentially significant risks. Companies must proceed with caution and consider the following before proceeding.

Husch Blackwell’s False Claims Act team previously covered the results of a rare False Claims Act (FCA) trial in which a federal jury found that a surgical product distributor was liable for paying kickbacks to physicians. The federal judge overseeing that trial initially entered judgment against the distributor defendants for $487 million after trebling the government’s actual damages and then adding penalties for each kickback-tainted claim.

On February 8, 2024, however, that same federal judge amended the judgment over concerns that the statutory penalties were unconstitutionally excessive. This article highlights the issue and explains what those accused of violating the FCA can learn from this decision.