Seven Things To Know When You Receive A Notice Of Investigation From The Department Of Health

Complex Litigation, Complex Business Litigation, Complex Commercial Litigation, Class Action Litigation, Multidistrict Litigation

Defining Complex Litigation

Complex commercial or business litigation, although not susceptible to a “bright line” determination, is usually considered to be litigation which includes:

-Multiple parties on one side of the litigation or the other;

-Complex legal issues such as medical regulatory issues, false claims act, or conspiracy claims;

   -Multiple different causes of actions or counter-claims;

   -Large amounts of money at issue (large stakes);

   -Litigants with great resources, able to finance ongoing litigation; or

   -Litigation involving multiple plaintiffs in different jurisdictions (multidistrict litigation);

Examples of complex litigation generally include:

Fraudulent or deceptive trade practices, whether under state law or federal law (misrepresentations and deceit in business transactions);

Antitrust violations or price-fixing (group boycotts; price discrimination; tying arrangements; monopolization of a line of business or geographic area, and conspiracies to fix prices, allocate customers, divide territories, or otherwise prevent competition) (or attempts to do any of the foregoing);

Employer-employee disputes (contract disputes; unpaid bonuses or wages; unpaid overtime; discrimination or harassment based on age, sex, gender, national origin, race, disabilities, handicap, or medical condition);

Enforcement of restrictive covenants (sometimes called covenants-not-to-compete or noncompetition agreements), nonsolicitation agreements and confidentiality agreements (note: this type of suit will often include a request for emergency relief such as a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction that might be crucial to the existence of a business).

Breach of contract cases for contracts that may include mergers and acquisitions, purchases and sales of businesses, transactions in real estate and other business assets, and agreements to provide goods or services;

Class action suits (suits on behalf of a large class of individuals similarly affected by the legal issues);

Shareholder/member disputes by the owners or shareholders of corporations and other business entities (including abuse of trust, breach of fiduciary duty by officers and persons in positions of trust, including officers and directors, agents, trustees, partners, or majority shareholders/members);

Tortious interference with the business relationships or contracts of another business, person or organization, by an outside third party; and

Government (state or federal) enforcement actions such as False Claims Act cases, civil monetary penalty cases, or civil forfeiture cases.

At The Health Law Firm, our litigation attorneys have wide-ranging experience in diverse business-to-business and consumer-to-business disputes such as breach of contract, business torts (including fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and other issues involving corporate governance, tortious interference with contracts or business relationships), defamation, false advertising, unfair competition, enforcement of restrictive covenants, allegations involving fraud and false representations, whistle blower allegations and False Claims Act cases, and complex health care legal and regulatory issues. Our litigators are also experienced in representing clients in investigations and disputes involving the government, including RICO, FDA, DEA, MFCU and antitrust-related actions. We have represented corporations and business entities in a variety of industries, including financial services, law, insurance, real estate and health care.

Our representation in the health care industry has included, medical groups, assisted living facilities (ALFs), skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), hospitals, group homes, home health agencies (HHAs), nurse registries, managed service organizations (MSOs), health maintenance organizations (HMOs), health insurers, durable medical equipment (DME)providers, pharmacies, health care clinics (HCCs), ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), targeted case management (TCM) providers, physicians and other licensed health professionals, health care institutions, and companies which manage and finance all of the foregoing.

Our commercial litigation representations have included matters of complexity, such as class action law suits, qui tam (whistle blower or False Claims Act) cases, civil monetary penalty cases brought by the federal government, parallel civil and administrative proceedings, and multidistrict and multistate litigation. Our lawyers are equally at ease in federal court or state court, in administrative hearings, civil hearings or criminal hearings. We have the experience and skills to successfully guide clients through complex disputes while, at the same time, understanding the unique aspects of local court systems and administrative tribunals.