By Douglas Baruch, John Boese, Jennifer Wollenberg and Kayla Kaplan, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP ( May 10, 2017, 5:53 PM EDT) -- A pair of recent rulings by the Eleventh Circuit and a Florida district court take aim at the government's practices in nonintervened False Claims Act qui tam cases, with mixed results. On the one hand, in the more noteworthy decision, the appellate court strongly reinforced the government's settlement and dismissal authority in nonintervened cases and the limited scope of judicial review over decisions made pursuant to such authority. But, in the district court action, a federal judge pointedly rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's common practice — particularly post-Escobar — of filing "statements of interest" in relator-conducted litigation. These decisions place into sharp focus the competing interests of relators and the government, which remains the real party in interest in FCA qui tam litigation....