Key Ways Escobar Is Being Applied One Year Later June 16, 2017 Attys Dish on Escobar's FCA Impact One Year Later – Law360 Law360 quoted Manatt’s Jacqueline Wolff, co-chair of the firm’s corporate investigations and white collar defense practice, for an article on how the Supreme Court’s decision in Universal Health Services v. Escobar has impacted False Claims Act litigation. As the publication reports, the decision created a new approach to “implied certification” cases involving undisclosed noncompliance. Wolff told Law360: "The decision is important in that it may provide defendants in FCA cases brought by relators alleging a theory of implied certification another route to get the complaint dismissed at the motion to dismiss level. Post Escobar, a defendant may be able to prevail in a motion to dismiss and avoid costly discovery where the relator is unable to allege that the violation of the regulation was material to the government agency paying the claim, i.e., that the government would not have paid for the claim had it known of the violation and that the defendant knew the government would not pay. Time will tell how this will play out practically, but various courts across circuits are beginning to dismiss FCA complaints on materiality grounds."
