Blowing the whistle on what appears to be corporate misconduct is not a small decision to make in Florida. Odds are that you have no experience filing a qui tam claim before, as it is extremely rare for someone to gain access to potentially incriminating information about a company even once in their lives. Filing a whistleblower lawsuit is a risky and complex endeavor, but that lack of experience can make the process seem even more difficult and complicated than it really is.

Finding the right Florida whistleblower lawyers for your qui tam case is the best way to not only succeed in your claim but also to preserve your rights and interests as the case progresses. Here are several things to keep in mind as you look for a whistleblower lawyer or law firm to represent you.

Whistleblower Cases Can Become Huge Resource Drains

One of the most important things that you need to know about whistleblower cases is how difficult they become if the government declines to intervene.

These cases are unique in that they have two stages. First, you gather evidence of corporate misconduct and present it to the federal law enforcement agency that would have jurisdiction to prosecute it.

What happens next will depend on the agency’s reaction to your case.

Ideally, your case will persuade the agency to intervene. If they do, their investigators – backed with the massive amounts of resources that the agency has at its disposal – will take your case over and gather evidence to support your claim on your behalf. While the whistleblower reward that you can receive is reduced, the odds of success increase significantly after government intervention, and the effort that your legal team will have to put into the case will decrease substantially.

However, if the government declines to intervene, you can still proceed on your own. You just will not have the federal agency doing the investigation for you. It will just be you and your legal team.

For this reason, you want a whistleblower firm that has enough Florida whistleblower lawyers and resources to see your case through to the end, even if there is no government intervention.

Your Firm Should Cover Your Costs

Whistleblower cases are also not inexpensive to put together. There will be a lot of up-front costs, from lining up expert witnesses to paying for travel costs to hiring special investigators so they can gather evidence that you need but may not have access to.

The whistleblower should not be the one to bear the burden of these expenses. They should fall on the firm, even though the firm generally charges on a contingency fee basis and will see nothing come of the case until the very end, and only if it secures recovery.

Big Law Firms Offer Steep Benefits for Whistleblowers

For these two reasons, big law firms that represent whistleblowers are generally better options than small firms. Large firms often have dozens of experienced whistleblower lawyers and numerous investigators on staff. Small firms may only have a couple legal professionals to handle several different whistleblower cases on their docket.

Many whistleblowers who hire a small firm to represent them during their case find that the firm does not have the personnel or the time and resources to pursue their claim if they are unable to persuade the relevant federal agency to intervene in it. This can cripple your claim after you have spent so much time and energy, and accepted so much risk, into getting it as far as it has gotten.

Law Offices in D.C. and Florida Can Be Convenient

Whistleblowers in federal cases often have two needs: They need their law firm to be local so they can meet with their lawyer with little effort, and they need their law firm to have access to the federal agency that they are going to ask to intervene on their behalf.

For federal cases that originate in Florida, this often means having access to a law firm with an office in both your locality as well as one in Washington, D.C. Florida is a surprisingly large state, so a firm with an office in the closest city to you can shave numerous hours off your case in travel time.

Your Firm Should Take Efforts to Protect Your Privacy

Protecting your privacy during a whistleblower claim should be your lawyer’s priority. Not only does secrecy ensure that you continue to have access to the evidence that you intend to blow the whistle on; it also protects your current and future professional life. It is an unfortunate possibility that a whistleblower’s investigation gathers evidence that fails to adequately prove any wrongdoing, only for the whistleblower to get discovered by the corporate suspect because they were being too reckless or were not taking their privacy seriously.

Your whistleblowing lawyer should give you the advice and the tools that you need to conduct a safe and fruitful investigation.

Do Not Just Look for Experience: Look for Relevant Experience

Another crucial thing to know about whistleblower cases is that this field of law is split by subject matter and that you will best be represented by an attorney who is well-versed in the issues present in your own case, someone with experience with state and local governments or the federal government, depending on your case. A whistleblower lawyer with extensive experience with whistleblower laws and handling qui tam lawsuits, qui tam cases, the Federal False Claims Act and allegations of securities misconduct before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is going to have a learning curve to overcome if your case involves healthcare fraud and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) or the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG).

Dr. Nick Oberheiden, founding partner of the national law firm for whistleblowers, Oberheiden P.C., often reminds clients, “There are a surprising number of nuanced differences between the federal laws that enable whistleblowers to report misconduct across industries. Reporting securities and investment misconduct is different from reporting tax fraud, for example, and the federal agencies that will get involved will be different, as well.”

A key component of that prior experience could even be a background spent working with the federal government or within the government agency that will have jurisdiction to hear your case. If you are blowing the whistle on suspected tax fraud, then a lawyer who spent a decade within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could make a big difference in the outcome of your case.