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Already looking past Election Day, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and congressional candidates have brought a federal complaint against the Federal Elections Commission to rein in super-PAC spending. The lawsuit filed on Nov. 4 in Washington says a “systemic crisis” has resulted from SpeechNow.org v. FEC, a ruling issued in 2010 by the en banc D.C. Circuit. The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Stephen Weisbrod with Weisbrod Matteis & Copley. You can read more about this lawsuit, and this important issue, on Courthouse News Service’s website: https://www.courthousenews.com/2016/11/07/bipartisan-group-takes-on-super-pac-explosion.htm

While most people point to Citizens United as the case that opened the door to big money in U.S. elections, the lesser-known 2010 appeals court ruling in SpeechNow.org v. FEC is perhaps just as blameworthy—one legal scholar says the decision “gave birth to the super PAC takeover of American politics.” “The actual facts on the ground show that the massive expenditures by super PACs are distorting our country’s politics and causing people to lose faith in our government institutions,” Stephen Weisbrod of the law firm of Weisbrod Matteis & Copley said. You can read more about this lawsuit, and this important issue, on the Common Dreams website: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/11/04/reclaim-democracy-new-lawsuit-aims-be-death-super-pac

Relators accusing State Farm of fraudulently misclassifying insurance claims faced off Tuesday with the insurer in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing over the severity of sanctions they should face for breaking the seal on False Claims Act suits, from discretionary penalties to automatic dismissal. Despite the intentional press leak by the relators’ former counsel — the now-disbarred Dickie Scruggs, who was convicted of bribing a judge in a different case — of information about the qui tam suit, in violation of the FCA’s automatic seal requirement, relators and former insurance adjusters Cori and Kerri Rigsby have faced effectively zero consequences, Kathleen Sullivan of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP said on behalf of State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. The Rigsbys are represented by William E. Copley, August J. Matteis Jr., Derek Y. Sugimura, Pamira S. Matteis, Matthew S. Krauss and Timothy M. Belknap of Weisbrod Matteis & Copley PLLC. You can read more about this lawsuit, and this important issue, on the Law360 website: https://www.law360.com/articles/854223/state-farm-spars-with-relators-in-high-court-over-fca-seal

The federal government has argued that breaking the seal on a False Claims Act case should not require automatic dismissal of that suit, in a U.S. Supreme Court dispute over alleged abuse of the federal flood insurance program. District judges traditionally have broad discretion to decide on the appropriate sanctions for violating court rules and orders, authority which should extend to instances where the automatic seal on a qui tam FCA case has been broken, federal attorneys said in an amicus brief filed Monday, asking the high court to rule against State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. Although the particular seal violations at issue — leaks to a journalist by former attorneys for relators Cori and Kerri Rigsby — were carried out in bad faith, they were “relatively minor” and done without the Rigsbys’ knowledge, and the district court and Fifth Circuit had reasonably determined that the other relevant factors outweighed that bad faith, according to the brief. The Rigsbys are represented by William E. Copley, August J. Matteis Jr., Derek Y. Sugimura, Pamira S. Matteis, Matthew S. Krauss and Timothy M. Belknap of Weisbrod Matteis & Copley PLLC. You can read more about this lawsuit, and this important issue, on Law360’s website: https://www.law360.com/articles/842422/gov-t-tells-high-court-fca-seal-violations-need-discretion

It’s easy to understand why groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Tort Reform Association and the Coalition for Government Procurement are siding with State Farm in one of the most colorful business cases the U.S. Supreme Court will hear in its upcoming term. But the organized criminal defense bar? The case, State Farm v. United States, stems from a 2006 False Claims Act suit two onetime insurance adjustors filed against State Farm, which they accused of fraudulently shifting Hurricane Katrina property damage claims to a government-backed flood insurance program. The adjusters – sisters named Cori and Kerri Rigsby – were represented by plaintiffs’ lawyer Dickie Scruggs, who was at that time one of the most powerful plaintiffs’ lawyers in the country. Scruggs also represented thousands of homeowners who alleged insurance companies were improperly denying their claims by attributing damage to floods rather than wind and storm surge. State Farm, represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Sullivan & Cromwell, asked the Supreme Court to use the case to resolve a split among the circuits on whether seal violations require the dismissal of FCA suits. Despite opposition from the Rigsby sisters, represented by Weisbrod Matteis & Copley, and from the Justice Department, the justices granted the petition for certiorari last May. You can read more about this lawsuit, and this important issue, on Reuters’ website: https://blogs.reuters.com/alison-frankel/2016/08/17/criminal-defense-bar-sides-with-business-lobby-in-false-claims-act-case-at-scotus/

A U.S. tire distributor sought to shut down a Sixth Circuit bid by its ex-business partner to send their dispute to Chinese arbitrators on Monday, saying an Ohio federal judge rightly decided that he couldn’t enforce an expired arbitration clause after months of fierce litigation. Horizon Tire Inc. and its sister companies first sued tire manufacturer Shandong Linglong Tire Co. Ltd. in California federal court in May 2015 for allegedly failing to repay a $3.6 million loan and trying to cut it out of the picture by selling a Horizon-designed tire called the Crosswind directly to retailers. Linglong filed its own suit against Horizon in Ohio, and the U.S. companies voluntarily ditched their California lawsuits to advance counterclaims in the Ohio litigation. Horizon Tire and its affiliates are represented by William E. Copley and August J. Matteis Jr. of Weisbrod Matteis & Copley PLLC, and John B. Nalbandian of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. You can read more about this lawsuit, and this important issue, on Law360’s website: https://www.law360.com/articles/829127/tire-maker-s-china-arbitral-bid-rightly-denied-6th-circ-told

Blackwater successor Academi Training Center Inc. on Wednesday blasted whistleblowers alleging that it provided unqualified security guards in Iraq and Afghanistan, telling a Virginia federal judge it’s placed reasonable limits on discovery in the False Claims Act suit and that efforts to expand production are a “fishing expedition” to back unsupported accusations. Former marksmen Lyle Beauchamp and Warren Shepherd want the court to force Academi to hand over documents created after Aug. 7, 2011 — the date its contract with the U.S. Department of State expired — even though, the company said, later documents are far outside the suit’s accusations that Academi lied about firearms training and qualifications for State Department guards under that contract. Beauchamp and Shepherd are represented by William E. Copley, Susan M. Sajadi, Janet L. Goetz, Chadwick Mitchell Welch and William E. Jacobs of Weisbrod Matteis & Copley PLLC. You can read more about this lawsuit, and this important issue, on Law360’s website: https://www.law360.com/articles/819835/blackwater-fca-relators-on-fishing-expedition-co-says

Victims of the 2012 Super Storm Sandy, still fighting for resolution of their flood insurance claims from the federally-administered National Flood Insurance Program, told Breitbart News they were stunned to learn that an attorney once deemed by a judge to have “unquestionably engaged in sanctionable conduct” had a role at the 2016 National Flood Conference held in Washington May 15 to May 18. August “Augie” Matteis, an attorney at Weisbrod, Matteis & Copley, represents 1,300 homeowners hit by Sandy in their struggles with FEMA and the NFID. “After the Raimey v. Raisfeld v. Wright ruling, the judge hit the insurance company with a $1 million fine,” Matteis said. “Nielsen went back to Louisiana — leaving the Sandy claims scene altogether.” You can read more about this lawsuit, and this important issue, on Breitbart News Network’s website: https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/05/17/sandy-victims-shocked-notoriously-ethics-challenged-attorney-joins-national-flood-conference/

DC Court Revives Carlyle’s Coverage Bid For Investor Suits