Law360, New York ( September 18, 2015, 10:38 AM EDT) -- The famous Charles Dickens line about these being the "worst of times" is alarmingly appropriate for American businesses when it comes to the growing number of False Claims Act suits brought by qui tam whistleblowers. In Fiscal Year 2014, more than 700 whistleblower suits were filed and the U.S. Department of Justice recovered over $5 billion from target businesses in qui tam litigation (see DOJ Official Press Release). Additionally, the decades-long "original source" precedent holding that whistleblowers must play a direct role in public disclosures in order to file suit was recently abandoned by the Ninth Circuit, leading one U.S. Attorney to remark that discouraged whistleblowers are now encouraged to file suit. See U.S. ex rel. Hartpence v. Kinetic Concepts Inc., No. 12-55396, (9th Cir. July 7, 2015). The floodgates have opened for more whistleblower lawsuits to be filed....