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DID YOU SIGN AN EMPLOYMENT RELEASE WAIVING YOUR WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIM? EVEN IF YOU SIGNED A RELEASE, YOU MAY NOT HAVE LEGALLY RELEASED YOUR CLAIM.
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012
In order to provide an employee with a severance or layoff payment, employers now commonly require their employees to sign a Release which releases or waives all possible claims against their employer for wrongful termination, age discrimination or any other type of lawsuit that employees commonly file against employers. These releases are typically very broad and make clear that employees are releasing all claims during the entire period of employment that has anything to do with their employment.
Employers that do business with the federal and state governments or are involved in Wall Street-type finance are also now sometimes including references to whistleblower claims or even in some cases specific references to the False Claims Act (a federal law pertaining to government contractor fraud) or the Dodd-Frank law (a federal law pertaining to Wall Street-type fraud) in these employment releases.
For employees losing their jobs and concerned that they may not be able to find other employment quickly, it is natural and understandable for that employee to go ahead and sign the Release to receive their severance pay, even if they believe that they might have had a good whistleblower claim.
If you did sign such a Release and believe that you do have a good and current whistleblower claim, you may not be out of luck. Under specific circumstances that are too detailed to get into here, you may be able to pursue a whistleblower claim even if you have already signed an employment Release and even if you have already received your severance pay!
If you believe you have a good whistleblower claim, but are concerned that you may have recently signed an employment Release (or are about to sign such a Release) waiving your claim, call the attorneys at Kenney & McCafferty Law Firm and find out whether you can still pursue a whistleblower claim. The attorneys at Kenney & McCafferty are experienced in dealing with this specific issue and will help you figure out whether you can still pursue your whistleblower claim.
Tags: False Claims Act, release
Posted in False Claims Act, government fraud, retaliation, Uncategorized, Whistleblower Protection | Comments Off
