Supreme Court: False Claims Act Liability Depends On Defendant’s Subjective Belief

On June 1, 2023, in United States ex rel. Schutte, the United States Supreme Court held that, to impose liability on an employer for “knowingly” submitting a false claim to the government for payment, it is sufficient for the plaintiff to prove that the employer knew or suspected that the submission was false, even if an objectively reasonable person may have known or believed otherwise. Reviewing two FCA decisions of the Seventh Circuit, the Court […]

By | June 6th, 2023 ||

Glassman v. Safeco Ins. Co. Of Am

In Glassman v. Safeco Ins. Co. of Am., 90 Cal. App. 5th 1281, 1281 (2023), the Sixth District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s denial of the plaintiff’s request for prejudgment interest under section 3287(a) on plaintiff’s excess underinsured motorist (“UIM”) coverage claim, which resulted in an arbitration award.

The plaintiff had prevailed in a UIM arbitration against respondent Safeco Insurance Company of America. The arbitration agreement was contained in a Safeco umbrella policy that […]

By | June 4th, 2023 ||

What Circuits Have The Most (and Least) Influence On The Sixth Circuit?

About a decade ago, this blog found that Sixth Circuit judges cited the Second, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits more often than any other circuit. When we controlled for the number of opinions, we found that opinions from the First, Seventh, Tenth and D.C. Circuits were three times more likely to be cited than opinions from other circuits. After our recent post showing that some circuits issue a far higher percentage of published opinions than others, we decided […]

By | June 3rd, 2023 ||