One Year Later: The Effect of the Granston Memo on Qui Tam Actions

On January 10, 2018, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a memo to all attorneys in the Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, and all Assistant U.S. Attorneys handling False Claims Act (“FCA”) cases, directing those attorneys to seek dismissal of FCA qui tam actions under certain circumstances.  When the so-called “Granston Memo” was issued, it remained to be seen what effect the directive would have and when the DOJ would seek to dismiss an FCA qui tam case. One year later,
the DOJ has taken certain actions that are presumably, at least in part, related to the principles set forth in
the Granston Memo.