C. An action brought under a statute that allows for a private person to sue for a penalty, part of which the government or some specified institution will receive.
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to pronunciationLegal Definition -
[Latin qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur "who as well for the king as for himself sues in this matter"] An action brought under a statute that allows for a private person to sue for a penalty, part of which the government or some specified institution will receive.--Often shotened to qui tam. Black's Law Dictionary® Eighth Edition © 2004
Current Usage -
Whistle-blowers are typically celebrated for risking their careers, and even their safety, to bring corporate wrongdoing to light. But once in a great while, someone blows a whistle on the whistle-blower. Consider the case of James Marchese, now unfolding in a courthouse in Seattle. Whistle-blower lawsuits like Mr. Marchese's, or so-called qui tam actions, date to the Civil War. That is when Congress, reacting to fraud by companies selling defective supplies to the Union Army, passed the False Claims Act, giving citizens the right to sue on the government's behalf and be rewarded for acting as an informant. But if the government believes that a whistle-blower was also a "planner or initiator" of the fraud, it can argue that the reward should be reduced, even down to zero. That is what the Justice Department is now saying about Mr. Marchese, 38, who was a sales representative at Cell Therapeutics, a company based in Seattle. BARRY MEIER, The New York Times October 25, 2007