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QuiTamOnline.com is made up of experienced lawyers from around the United States who share their collective knowledge and resources to represent whistleblowers and Relators. Click a name below for a biography and more information about the lawyer.
David L. Haron is a partner in the Troy, Michigan lawfirm of Frank, Haron, Weiner and Navarro. Mr. Haron represents whistleblowers in cases brought under the False Claims Act. He is admitted to practice in the State of Michigan, and works with other lawyers both locally and around the United States representing clients seeking to stop fraud against the government. His cases involve fraudulent billing of Medicare and Medicaid and other government agencies.
Mr. Haron was Relator's counsel in U.S. ex rel. Byrne v. Damon Clinical Laboratories, Inc. that resulted in a recovery of $119 million and in U.S. ex rel Lent v. Donald Berman, M.D. resulting in a recovery of $1.372 million. He was class action plaintiff's counsel in Ranger v. American Way Life Insurance Company that resulted in a $1.8 million credit life insurance settlement. His firm was also plaintiff's counsel in Jiraki v. Wayne County, a whistleblower and wrongful termination case brought by a former Wayne County, Michigan Medical Examiner, that resulted in a $2.5 million jury verdict.
Mr. Haron is the author of a series of four articles for the Advance for Physical Therapists & PT Assistants web-site (www.advanceforpt.com): When Courtesy Turns Into Fraud, (December, 2000), Keeping an Eye Out For Fraud - Two Schemes That Deserve Your Attention (October, 2000), Why Nursing Home Fraud is Your Problem and How to Fight Back (August, 2000), and Recognizing Fraud and What To Do About It (July, 2000). His other articles include Waste and Neglect: Fraud and Abuse in the Health Care Industry, The Health Care Supervisor (June, 1998), Ex Parte Communications with Employees of a Defendant Corporation, Laches (April, 2001), The Professionalism Debate Moves to Cyberspace, Laches (August, 1996), Professionalism: Two Authors-Two Views, Laches (May, 1996), A Commercial Real Estate Closing Checklist, The Practical Real Estate Lawyer (July, 1993 and November, 2000) and The Landlord and the Medical Tenant: How the Michigan Medical Waste Regulatory Act Affects Their Relationship, Laches (June, 1993).
Mr. Haron has presented at the Institute of Continuing Legal Education's Annual Michigan Health Law Annual Institutes on the subject of Qui Tam and False Claims Act Enforcement and Practice and at the Compliance Committee, Healthcare Financial Management Association, Eastern Michigan Chapter on The False Claims Act and the Psychology of the Whistleblower. He also provided a segment entitled The Qui Tam Claim: What Is It and How Do You Avoid It? for the American Educational Institute's 1998-99 Medical/Dental/Legal Update. Mr. Haron has been a guest discussing Qui Tam recoveries on a WJR Radio Program hosted by David Newman, has participated in a panel discussion with Saul Green, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan and others on the syndicated television program Due Process and has spoken before many local Bar Associations on Qui Tam procedure.
He has been profiled in:
- "Whistle-Blowers Need Incentives"
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"News in Health Law" Health Lawyers News, September, 1999
- "Doctor Settles False Claims Suit for $1.37 Million," American Medical News, August 9, 1999
- "Troy Attorney Recovers $1.3 Million in Whistleblower Case," Troy-Somerset Gazette, August 2, 1999
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"New York Physician to pay $1.3 Million To Settle Medicare False Claims Allegations," BNA’s Health Care Fraud Report, July 28, 1999
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"Those who report fraud earn rewards: Whistleblowers get certain share of lawbreaker’s loot," The Detroit News, July 23, 1999
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"Local doctor to pay up in fraud case," Poughkeepsie Journal, July 22, 1999
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"Resident rewarded for honesty," Birmingham Eccentric, October 17, 1996
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"Whistleblower awarded $9 million in Medicare fraud case Laboratory forced doctors to require unnecessary blood tests, settlement shows," The Dallas Morning News Associated Press, October 13, 1996
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"Justice pursued, justice rewarded," The Oakland Press, October 12, 1996
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"Whistleblower earns $9 million reward," The Oakland Press, October 11, 1996
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"Multimillion Reward Ends Whistleblower’s Three-Year Saga," The Associated Press, October 11, 1996
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"Whistleblower Wins $9 Million—She waited 3 years in Medicare-Fraud Case," The Seattle Times, October 11, 1996
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"Blowing the whistle has big rewards," The Boston Globe, October 10, 1996
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"Health care whistleblower gets $9 million court award," The Detroit News, October 10, 1996
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"Insurer Settles-American Way must pay credit life claim," Detroit Free Press, March 18, 1994
Mr. Haron is listed in "Who’s Who in the World" and is a member of the American Health Lawyers Association and co-chair of its False Claims/Qui Tam Working group, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the American Bar Association's Health Law Committee.
He is a 1969 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School where he was an editor of the Journal of Law Reform, won the American Jurisprudence Award for excellence in Business Associations and from where he was selected as law clerk to the Honorable T. John Lesinski, Chief Judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Mr. Haron can be contacted at or by phone at 248-952-0400.
Robin Page West is a partner in the Baltimore, Maryland law firm of Cohan & West, P.C.. She is also the author of the book Representing the Qui Tam Whistleblower published in January, 2001 by the American Bar Association. Ms. West's qui tam cases have involved health care, defense contracts, government grants, and other areas where federal monies are used.
Ms. West represented the whistleblower Terry Fletcher in the case of U. S. ex rel. Fletcher v. MetPath, the fourth largest qui tam recovery nationwide in 1995. She also represented Donna Dorer in a whistleblower case in which Quest Diagnostics, Inc. agreed in April, 1998 to pay $6.8 million to settle allegations that some regional labs ran tests and billed Medicare without physician authorization, and Peter Scott in a qui tam action in which Cigna Corp. paid an $8.9 million settlement. Ms. West's clients have been awarded relator shares as high as the statutory maximum of 30%.
West is also the author of "Handling the False Claims Act Case" published in the March, 1998 issue of The Practical Litigator. She was on the faculty of the American Bar Association's 1998 Health Care Fraud and Qui Tam National Institutes for lawyers held in California and Washington, D. C., respectively. In September of 1996, West was interviewed on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" on the subjects of qui tam litigation and stopping health care fraud. She has been quoted on the subject of qui tam litigation in the American Bar Association Journal, the National Law Journal, the Washington Times, Baltimore's Daily Record, the Bureau of National Affairs' newsletter on Health Care Fraud Litigation, and other publications. She also co-chaired the qui tam subcommittee of the ABA Litigation Section's Health Care Law committee, and has twice been a featured speaker on that subject at the American Bar Association's annual meetings.
She has been profiled in:
- "Health Care Fraud: Quest Diagnostics to Pay $6.8 Million in Billing Case," Bureau of National Affairs' Daily Report for Executives, No. 71, April 14, 1998.
- "Compliance Programs Key to Limiting Exposure to Qui Tam Suits," Bureau of National Affairs' Health Care Fraud Report, Vol. 1, No. 7, April 9, 1997.
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National Public Radio, Morning Edition: "'Qui Tam' Suits Put Government Defrauders on Ice," broadcast September 24, 1996.
- "Suing to Stop Medical Fraud Pays Off," The Washington Times, September 17, 1996.
- "Taking on a Qui Tam," The ABA Journal, May, 1996.
- "Whistleblower Lawsuit Settled by Rockville Lab for $8.6M," The Daily Record, May 18, 1995.
Ms. West is a 1979 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, and can be reached by e-mail at , or by phone at 410-244-0400.
Jeff Aresty
www.cyberspaceattorney.com
Jeffrey M. Aresty has an extensive background in negotiating and structuring international joint venture relationships, establishing direct and indirect sales, marketing and manufacturing operations in Europe, South America and the Far East, negotiating and structuring licensing, sales, service, and other agreements necessary to transfer technology, staff foreign operations, market products and services; and, if necessary to resolve disputes. Mr. Aresty is the editor of The ABA Guide to International Business Negotiations, the premier legal text on the subject, with an accompanying CD- ROM soon to be released.
Mr. Aresty spent two years traveling between Taiwan, China, and the U.S. from 1989 to 1991 exploring the business opportunities for U.S. businesses in the Far East. He lobbied the Massachusetts legislature as a part of his international banking masters thesis to establish a development bank funded by Chinese investors to transfer US technology to the Far East, and to establish the necessary intellectual property protections required for extensive technology transfer.
Mr. Aresty is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. In addition to his law degree (Boston University Law, 1976), he also earned masters of laws degrees in taxation (1979) and international banking (1993) from Boston University Law School.
Mr. Aresty can be contacted at or by phone at 617-367-8393.
Grande Law Offices was founded by Thomas Grande to litigate cases of importance to the public interest. Grande Law Offices partners each of its cases with prominent law firms in Hawaii and across the United States. This unique approach to public interest litigation brings tremendous resources in multi-party group or class actions and in false claims act (qui tam) cases.
National Recognition
Mr. Grande has achieved national recognition in his primary fields of practice - class action and false claims act (qui tam) litigation. Mr. Grande is past co-chairperson of the American Bar Association Subcommittee on State Class Actions and is Editor in Chief Emeritus of the ABA Survey of State Class Action Law, the first publication to summarize each state's class action rule and case law.
Mr. Grande is co-founder and past co-chair of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (now American Association for Justice) Qui Tam Litigation Group. Mr. Grande has obtained the highest Medicare fraud settlement in Hawaii, the highest Medicaid fraud settlement in Hawaii and the first settlement under the Hawaii False Claims Act.
Class Action Cases
Mr. Grande's class action cases have recovered over $10 million for consumers in the past several years, including settlements with Bergen industries for drug recycling ($4.8 million), Allstate Insurance for improper use of credit scores to set insurance rates ($2.26 million), State Farm Insurance for improper use of credit scores to set insurance rates ($1.2 million) and Hilton Hotels for failing to disclose mold contamination to its guests ($1.8 million).
Qui Tam - False Claims Act - Whistleblower Cases
Mr. Grande's recent false claims act cases include a $2.3 million settlement with Kaiser Hospitals for using unlicensed physical therapists in California and Hawaii and a $1.2 million settlement with Shinwha Electronics for falsifying fire inspection safety records at military bases in Korea, which was the first case settled under the federal false claims act against a foreign company for false billings on a foreign military base.
A Commitment to Service in the Public Interest
Mr. Grande has a life-long commitment to work in the public interest and has represented organizations in pro-bono litigation cases in environmental, voting rights and consumer law. He is the co-founder and organizer of Children with Lawyers, a program which has established a pro-bono volunteer lawyer base for work with the Na Keiki (Children's) Law Center in Honolulu.Ę He is a two-time honoree and recipient of the Oustanding Contribution to Legal Services Award from Hawai'i Lawyers Care.ĘĘOne of his cases resulted in a $2.3 million cy pres award to the University of Hawai'i, which was used to create the University of Hawai'i Center on Law Medicine and Aging and to fund geriatric programs at the University of Hawai'i School of Medicine.
Legislative Achievements
Since 2000, Mr. Grande has drafted and helped secure passage of the Hawai'i False Claims Act, the Hawai'i County False Claims Act, the Hawai'i Elder Justice Act, amendments to the Hawai'i Unfair and Deceptive Practices Act to allow indirect purchaser consumer class actions and unfair competition claims for small businesses, and legislation to prevent double taxation of whistleblower and employment discrimination plaintiffs.
Honors/Awards
In 2005, Mr. Grande and his former partners received the Harriet Bouslog Loio Ku Kahi Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii for exceptional legal contributions to civil liberties.
In 2006, Mr. Grande and his former partners received the C. Frederick Schutte Award from the Hawai'i State Bar Association for outstanding and meritorious service to the legal community in the provision of legal services to community organizations.
Mr. Grande is a two-time recipient of the Oustanding Contribution to the Delivery of Legal Services Award from Hawai'i Lawyers Care.
Presentations/Speaking
Mr. Grande is a frequent speaker nationally and in Hawai'i on false claims act (qui tam) and class action litigation. He has been a featured speaker at national conferences of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Consumer Law Center, the Association of Trial Lawyers of American (American Association for Justice), the Taxpayers Against Fraud and the American Academy of Professional Coders, among others.
Mr. Grande can be contacted at or by phone at 808-521-7500
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