Litigation

Let a thousand whistleblowers bloom -- and their lawyers' fees, too

By Carter Wood

The deadline was Friday, Dec. 17, for submitting comments in response to the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed rules to implement the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, i.e., the financial regulatory reform legislation [Release No. 34-63237; File No. S7-33-10]. As the Federal Register summary states:

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, enacted on July 21, 2010 ("Dodd-Frank"), established a whistleblower program that requires the Commission to pay an award, under regulations prescribed by the Commission and subject to certain limitations, to eligible whistleblowers who voluntarily provide the Commission with original information about a violation of the Federal securities laws that leads to the successful enforcement of a covered judicial or administrative action, or a related action.

In its comment letter, the American Association for Justice objected to the proposal because to qualify, a whistleblower's information would have to "significantly contributed to the success of the action" and the information "would not otherwise have been obtained and was essential to the success of the action." AAJ writes:

Full post as published by Point of Law on December 20, 2010 (boomark / email).