Mississippi Whistleblower Attorney Talks about What Can Happen after the Whistle is Blown

We often hear about what happens to whistleblowers after they attempt to address wrongdoing within their workplace with people within the workplace who could help them to do so. Whistleblowers often experience retaliation in varying degrees, including mistreatment within the workplace, termination, and continued bullying and harassment from people affiliated with their workplace even after they get fired.

In addition to bringing attention to the effects of retaliation on whistleblowers, it is important that we pay attention to what can happen in regards to the wrongdoing that caused the whistleblowers to speak up in the first place. In some cases, the wrong that is exposed by a whistleblower gets addressed and remedied. The ways in which this can happen are, of course, as varied as the wrongs that get exposed.

One thing that can happen after a corporation’s illegal actions are brought to light by a whistleblower is litigation. You may already be aware that a whistleblower brought attention to the cost and construction estimation debacle that is the Kemper “clean coal” power plant project in Kemper County, Mississippi. The whistleblower believed that Southern Company put a positive spin on some very negative facts regarding construction progress and cost projections for the power plant because the company knew that investors would panic if they became aware that the project was in danger of losing federal subsidies because of the delays in completing the project.

Southern Company’s “positive spin” that it presented to investors may have gone so far as to result in violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Recently, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of shareholders who purchased Southern Company securities during the period from April 25, 2012, to October 29, 2013. The complaint alleges that Southern Company did not disclose construction setbacks to its investors, even though those delays would prevent the project from being completed by a deadline that the company had announced previously. When the delays and the associated cover-up were disclosed, the value of the company’s stock declined.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Protecting Mississippi Whistleblowers

The filing of a class action lawsuit for investors in the Kemper “clean coal” project is just one example of what kinds of things can happen after a whistleblower sheds light on corporate wrongdoing. Investors trust the information that the companies that they have invested in give to them, and when the information that they get is not truthful, the investors’ financial well-being is placed at risk without their knowledge. It is important that corporate misconduct like this is brought to the attention of regulators and the public so that it can be addressed. This is why whistleblowers play such an important role. Whistleblowers take a risk in exposing the wrongs that they bring to light, and they often suffer personally after they have done so. If you have experienced retaliation as the result of your actions as a whistleblower, the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorney at Barrett Law PLLC might be able to help you. Call us today, at 1 (601) 790-1505 to set up an initial consultation.

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Mississippi Whistleblower Attorney Discusses National Security Agency Whistleblower Case

Whistleblower cases happen in all kinds of workplaces, from large multinational corporations to smaller businesses and everything in between, including government agencies. A top official within the National Security Agency is currently involved in a whistleblower retaliation case against the Agency.

This high-level case affects the whistleblower and the Inspector General of the National Security Agency, who has been placed on administrative leave after he denied a particular job assignment to the whistleblower. The case could also provide support for Edward Snowden’s assertion that he would have been retaliated against if he had reported the government’s domestic surveillance program.

Some whistleblower cases involve specific laws or procedures, depending upon the type of information that the whistleblower wants to disclose or the type of company or agency where the whistleblower is or was employed. For example, this whistleblower case is the first case to go through a process that President Barack Obama created in 2012 to give intelligence employees a means by which they can report suspected wrongdoing without experiencing retaliation in the form of restricted access to classified information, losing their security clearances or other negative consequences. It is unclear whether the Trump administration will choose to continue the program.

In this case, the whistleblower alleged that there was financial misconduct by the National Security Agency in connection with a conference that took place in Nashville, Tennessee. After he had done this, his name was made known to the Inspector General, even though the aforementioned process should have prevented that from happening. After that, the whistleblower got passed over for an assignment within the Inspector General’s office of investigation.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Strong Support for Mississippi Whistleblowers

Whistleblower cases are a varied lot. Whether you work for a government agency on a local or national basis or a large or small company, it is possible that you could witness wrongdoing within your workplace. If that happened, you would hope that your concerns would not only be heard and addressed by those in charge in your workplace, you would hope that no harm would come to you for helping your organization identify and correct misconduct that violates the law. Unfortunately, this is all too often not the case. Individuals seeking to do the right thing are often met with harsh consequences. If you have attempted to address a concern about misconduct in your workplace with workplace leaders and your efforts were met with retaliation, you might be able to file a whistleblower retaliation claim. Retaliation can harm an individual in many ways, from economic damage associated with losing a job or experiencing a change in job duties to emotional damage from bullying and humiliation. If you are a whistleblower who has experienced any type of retaliation, the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC might be able to help you.  To learn more, call the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC today at 1 (601) 790-1505 to schedule an initial consultation.

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issippi Whistleblower Attorney Talks about Severance Agreements and Whistleblower Protection

Despite the existence of laws that protect whistleblowers, some violations of securities law and other regulations continue to go unreported because would-be whistleblowers are intimidated into remaining silent. There are various tactics that companies use to silence would-be whistleblowers, and a recent case against a Virginia-based company illustrates one of those strategies – the severance agreement that forbids whistleblowing through the use of intimidating language.

A company called Neu-Star recently agreed to pay a hundred and eighty thousand dollars to settle a lawsuit that alleged that the corporation used severance agreements that essentially forbade whistleblowing. The contracts are alleged to have contained a broadly constructed “non-disparagement” clause that prohibited former employees from making any communication to the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) that speaks negatively about the company. The severance agreement that Neu-Star was using is alleged to have stated that any former employee who violated the non-disparagement clause of their severance agreement could lose their severance pay. It is easy to see how such language could cause a former employee to fear that anything that they would say to the SEC about a possible violation of securities law could be construed by their former employer as a disparaging remark, which would put their severance pay at risk.

Whistleblower protection laws prohibit public companies from using non-disparagement clauses and other intimidating language in severance agreements. The laws are designed to ensure the freedom of former employees to discuss possible violations of securities law with the SEC. When companies use severance agreements that contain non-disparagement clauses or other language that could cause a former employee to forego reporting a possible violation of securities law, that agreement is said to have had a chilling effect on the former employee. In the Neu-Star case, at least one former employee was so intimidated by the non-disparagement clause contained in their severance agreement that they did not report a possible violation of securities law to the SEC.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Uncompromising Support for Mississippi Whistleblowers

Severance agreements are intended to set out the terms upon which former employees can obtain pay for a specified period following their departure from a company. While it is legal for severance agreements to make demands of former employees for them to be able to collect severance pay, it is not legal for companies to demand that former employees refrain from reporting possible violations of the law. Things like agreements not to work for competing firms are fair and legal, but if your severance agreement has language in it that could cause you to think twice before reporting a violation of securities law or any other laws to the agency charged with investigating such allegations, the agreement may violate whistleblower protection laws. If you know that your company uses such a severance agreement or if you have signed a severance agreement that you feel would prevent you to from reporting possible violations of securities law or other laws in order to ensure that you would receive severance pay, call the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC. Call our office today, at 1 (601) 790-1505 to set up a free, initial consultation.

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Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys Discuss The Continuing State Farm Saga

The whistleblower case that sisters Kerri and Cori Rigsby brought against State Farm in 2006 continues to make waves, and this time it’s the United States Supreme Court that is weighing in on the matter. The Court chose to uphold the jury verdict in favor of the Rigsbys after State Farm challenged the award on the grounds that their attorney had disclosed information about the case to the media in violation of a court order which required that the case be kept under seal.

The Rigsby’s whistleblower case has its roots in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Rigsbys were working as claims adjusters for State Farm, assessing properties that had been damaged by the storm. The sisters examined one home in Biloxi, Mississippi and determined that it had been damaged by the wind. The insurance policy that State Farm has issued for that property included coverage for wind damage, but not for flood damage. State Farm claimed that the property had been damaged by flood and not by the wind, and asserted that the government should pay for the damage. When they discovered that their employer was trying to shift the burden of paying for the damage to the property in Biloxi to the government instead of paying the claim itself, the sisters filed a lawsuit on behalf of the government under the False Claims Act. The False Claims Act exists for situations like the one that the Rigsby’s encountered, situations where individuals believe that the government was defrauded.

The Rigsbys prevailed in their case against State Farm, and in 2013, a jury awarded them over two hundred thousand dollars plus attorneys’ fees in addition to ordering State Farm to pay nearly seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in total damages. State Farm appealed the verdict to the 5th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which upheld the jury’s verdict. In its appeal to the Supreme Court, State Farm sought to have the jury verdict overturned because the Rigsby’s former lawyer had given information about the case, which was under court order to be sealed, to the media. The media organizations to which the information was disclosed did not reveal the existence of the Rigsby’s lawsuit to the public. The Supreme Court, in its decision, concluded that the disclosures that the Rigsby’s former lawyer had made to the media did not justify overturning the verdict.

The Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC encourage individuals who witness corporate wrongdoing to stand up and take action. Corporations know that there are not enough eyes on them from the outside to catch every violation of the law, and they do not fear that individuals from within their ranks will take action to expose wrongdoing because they have developed effective strategies for intimidating those who would date to do so into remaining silent. Whistleblowers are often the only hope for exposing egregious misconduct on the part of corporations and other organizations, and they need to know that if they choose to step forward and reveal a wrong that they will have support in doing so. That’s why we are here. To learn more, call the Mississippi Whistleblower attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC at 1 (601) 790-1505 to arrange a free, initial consultation.

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Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys Discuss the Double Impact of the Wells Fargo Whistleblower Case

Multiple people allege that they were fired by financial giant Wells Fargo after they spoke up against the company regarding concerns that they had that the firm was engaging in fraudulent activities. These former employees claim that not only did Wells Fargo know about their concerns regarding consumer and corporate fraud, but they say that the government is aware of the problems too.

Since 2010, dozens of Wells Fargo employees have filed complaints against the company through the federal government’s whistleblower protection program. The complaints allege that the former employees experienced retaliation in response to their attempts to address their concerns over consumer and corporate fraud. This situation certainly reveals concerns about the business practices at Wells Fargo, but it also exposes possible flaws and weaknesses in the federal whistleblower protection program.

As far as the allegations against Wells Fargo are concerned, the business practices that were troubling to the now former employees involved the fraudulent opening of credit cards and bank accounts on behalf of customers who had not authorized those accounts to be opened. The bank has been fined one hundred and eighty-five million dollars because it engaged in consumer fraud.

Unfortunately, the issue of retaliation by the bank against the many employees who attempted to address their concerns regarding the fraud with company management has not been well tended to. Some of the employees who filed whistleblower complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) experienced delays in the agency’s response to their claims, and some complaints were never even investigated by the administration.

Apparently, the Wells Fargo cases are not the only cases that have gone without investigation, complaints from other whistleblowers against other firms have received little to no attention from OSHA as well. The result is that whistleblowers do not get the protection and justice that they deserve and matters regarding consumer fraud, public safety, and health concerns, and corporate wrongdoing are slow to be exposed. The agency cites a backlog of whistleblower complaints as the reason that it has been so slow to investigate the matters.

It is not surprising that employees within OSHA tried to address their concerns regarding the whistleblower cases that were sitting around and not being investigated. Some of these agency employees-turned-whistleblowers were fired after they expressed their concerns, and some of them a=have even filed retaliation complaints against OSHA.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Helping Mississippi Whistleblowers Fight Injustice

The Wells Fargo whistleblower cases have done more than expose large-scale corporate and consumer fraud. They have revealed weakness within one of the agencies that had been given the important work of protecting whistleblowers from retaliation. The aforementioned problems with OSHA make it clear that now, more than ever, whistleblowers need strong allies as they pursue claims against the companies that have retaliated against them. The whistleblower claims process is complicated and sometimes, periods of inaction can leave whistleblower wondering whether their cases will ever be resolved. When you work with a whistleblower attorney, you receive the benefit of having someone on your side who knows when to push forwards towards resolution of your case so that it does not sit around indefinitely. If you suffered harm after taking action as a whistleblower, the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC might be able to help you. Call our office today at 1 (601) 790-1505 to set up a free, initial consultation.

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Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys Talk about the Harm that Some Whistleblowers Experience

When someone who works for a company sees something happening that is not right, and they take their concern to their superiors, they are not always thanked or congratulated for giving those in leadership roles a chance to make things right. Often, their concerns are dismissed, which is bad enough, except that it does not end there. Some whistleblowers get fired from jobs that they have worked diligently at for years. Others remain on staff, although they experience heartbreaking injustice at work on a day to day basis. Both those employees who get fired and those who remain on staff in some capacity are often mistreated in ways that range from defamation to threats, bullying, and other forms of abuse.

A look inside the life of an Assistant Human Resources Officer at the McGuire VA Hospital reveals just how painful the life of a whistleblower can be. She still works for the hospital, but what she does can hardly be called work. She claims that she has not been assigned any meaningful tasks for about a year now, since she refused to give in to pressure to hire another manager’s husband for a job that she knew he was not qualified to fill. To add insult to injury, she was recently asked by one of her superiors what she has accomplished over the past year.

The consequences that the officer has experienced since she stood her ground and voiced her concerns regarding the alleged nepotism have been harsh to say the least. She gets paid, but she feels that taxpayers ought to know that their money is being wasted on her salary because she was stripped of her job responsibilities. Her office was nearly moved out to a trailer, but she fought back against that, too, and she was transferred into a tiny space that is not in a trailer. Her office is not only small; it is isolated, and she has no doubt that she was banished – how could she think otherwise when she previously supervised over fifty people.

The officer has endured verbal attacks, and her office door was plastered with signs that describe the characteristics of a bad leader. When she has reported the hostilities in her work environment to superiors, the mistreatment got worse, and she became the target of not just one but four internal investigations. She feels that she was singled out for abuse to serve as an example so that other employees would not even think about reporting their concerns. The Office of Special Counsel is now investigating the officer’s allegations, and she hopes that they will prosecute the hospital.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Standing Alongside Mississippi Whistleblowers Through the Claims Process

If your attempt to address concerns about work practices in your company with senior management was met with retaliation, you might be able to seek protection under whistleblower protection laws. Like the case mentioned above illustrates, retaliation is hurtful no matter what form it takes, from being isolated and stripped of job duties, to verbal abuse and many other forms of intimidation. If you have experienced retaliation, the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC may be able to assist you.  To find out more, please call the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC today at 1 (601) 790-1505 to schedule your initial consultation.

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Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys Discuss Whistleblower Cases Involving Family Ties

Taking a stand against improper business practices is tough enough, but some whistleblowers face the added challenge of speaking out against businesses that involve both business and family relationships. One whistleblower was brave enough to speak out against a company whose wrongdoing could place patients’ health at risk because its work involves blood testing. He reported what he had seen while working for the enterprise despite the fact that his grandfather, with whom he had always had a close relationship, holds an important position within the firm.

Tyler Schultz did not have to work at Theranos for very long before he noticed workplace practices that raised serious concerns about the accuracy of blood test results that were being produced by the company’s testing devices. Schultz had only been working at the firm for eight months when he felt that his concerns were grave enough to speak to the company’s founder about what he had seen. Not only were his concerns dismissed, but the response that he received was insulting, belittling, and threatening.

Schultz did not let that response or his connection to his grandfather prevent him in pressing forward to continue exposing his concerns about the accuracy of the company’s blood testing equipment. After all, he was one of several employees who shared those concerns and who had tried to address the issues within the enterprise, only to have their efforts dismissed and rebuffed by company leaders. Tyler Schultz wanted to protect patient health by contacting New York State’s public health lab to tell them about his concerns, and he also wanted to protect his grandfather’s reputation.

In addition to making the regulatory complaint, Schultz began speaking to a Journal reporter as a confidential source. Attorneys from the company have accused him of leaking trade secrets and have threatened to take legal action against him. Schultz maintains his stance against the company’s business practices, and he is cooperating with a federal investigation of Theranos. The company is being investigated both civilly and criminally by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco.

Tyler Schultz and his parents have had to invest a considerable amount of time, energy, and money to ensure that the inaccuracy of the blood testing equipment manufactured by Theranos was noted and investigated by authorities. Whistleblowers often face an uphill battle as they fight to do the right thing. Fortunately, they do not have to fight alone. Whistleblower attorneys understand the difficulties that are inherent in the process of exposing corporate wrongdoing. The Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC are here to help you navigate the whistleblower claims process. We can help you pursue recovery from the various types of damages that you have experienced throughout your journey as a whistleblower.  If you have questions or concerns regarding your experience as a whistleblower, please call the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC today at 1 (601) 790-1505 to arrange a free, initial consultation.

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Mississippi Whistleblower Attorney Discusses an Interesting Police Whistleblower Case

Sometimes, whistleblower cases provide an interesting peek inside of the goings on inside of a company or an organization. In the case of a Virginia police detective who reported to his superiors that he was concerned that a fellow detective had stolen money from a drug bust, the department’s response to his report makes for an interesting whistleblower case. The detective who voiced his concern about the handling of the money got fired for eating candy off of the floor of a crime scene.

The detective documented evidence while he was at the crime scene by taking pictures of the residence and placing several thousand dollars that were inside the home into an evidence bag. As he went about his work, he noticed that there were a few pieces of candy on the floor. He asked another detective who was working with him whether the other detective thought that he would get into trouble if he ate the candy, and the other detective replied that he did not believe so. The hungry detective ate the candy and went along his way, thinking that nothing more would come of it.

Unfortunately, the money that the detective had collected at the crime scene went missing. The detective who had collected the money expressed concern that his supervisor might have taken the money. What happened next was not the appropriate departmental response that the detective was hoping for. The police department claimed that an internal audit had revealed the “missing money” to be nothing more than a clerical error. The department later blamed the theft on the detective who had expressed concern about the missing money, citing the detective’s confession that he had eaten a piece of candy from off of the floor of the crime scene as evidence of theft on the part of the detective, and they fired him. The detective believes that the “theft” charge is not only outrageous but is retaliatory in nature. In his whistleblower lawsuit, he seeks lost wages as well as compensation for damage to his reputation, embarrassment, humiliation, and general emotional distress.

Barrett Law PLLC:  A Trusted Ally of Whistleblowers in Mississippi

If you have discussed concerns about potential violations of the law with senior management in your company and you were met with no response or an inadequate response, you may have escalated those concerns to the authorities in the interest of exposing your employer’s wrongdoing. If your employer then retaliated against you in any way after you did that, you could qualify for protection as a whistleblower. Retaliation can take many forms, from termination from your position to being stripped of many of your duties, to harassment, threats, defamation, and other types of economic and emotional harm. The Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC are here to help you.  To learn more, please call the seasoned Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC today at 1 (601) 790-1505 to schedule an initial consultation with us.

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Mississippi Whistleblower Attorney Talks about an International Whistleblower Case

While there are many interesting and important whistleblower cases taking place in America right now, it is essential that we also take the time to look at the things that whistleblower around the world have been able to accomplish in the name of exposing corruption and pursuing justice.

A husband and wife team from Russia felt that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) betrayed them after they exposed state-sponsored doping in their home country.  Yulia Stepanova is a runner who competes in the (601)meter event, and her husband Vitaly is a former anti-doping official. The couple had to flee Russia after they released information to international news outlets that helped to expose the systematic cheating that has been going on in Russia. Yulia has lots of experience with the Russian doping system because she took part in it for years before being banned from competition for two years. After she had served her ban, she and her husband decided to speak out about what was going on; they became whistleblowers. After the issue of Russian doping was exposed, Russia got suspended from participating in global track and field competition, and all but one of Russia’s Olympic track and field team members were excluded from competing in the Rio Olympics.

Yulia had applied to the IOC to compete at the Olympics as an independent athlete, but the Committee denied her application despite the recommendation of the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) that she be allowed to compete as a neutral athlete. The IOC claims that her past doping case and other concerns supported their rejection of her application because she did not meet the ethical requirements that athletes must meet to be allowed to compete in the Olympics. The IOC did offer to bring the Stemanovas to the games to watch the competition as VIP guests, but the couple felt as though that was a bribe. The Stepanovas also felt that the IOC’s denial of Yulia’s application to compete in the Olympics was unfair, and they pursued the matter. Now, the IOC has agreed to give Yulia financial support so that she can continue her career as a runner. They have also decided to employ Vitaly as a consultant on the issue of doping control.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Helping Mississippi Whistleblowers Fight the Good Fight

If you witnessed violations of federal law in your workplace and you exposed them, you did the right thing. Whistleblowers are sometimes the only way that corporate and institutional wrongdoing could be exposed because organizations have such tightly coordinated methods of hiding their wrongdoing from the public and from regulatory agencies and other organizations that uphold the laws. If you have suffered retaliation or harm after taking action as a whistleblower, the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC could help you.  Our attorneys understand the complexities of whistleblower law, and they can help you understand the whistleblower case process as they help you through it.  Call the whistleblower protection attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC today at 1 (601) 790-1505 to set up a free, initial consultation.

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Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys Discuss Penn State Whistleblower Defamation Case

Defamation is one way that companies and institutions retaliate against whistleblowers. When a corporation or an organization issues statements that could damage a person’s good reputation, that is defamation. The harm that can befall someone who has been defamed can range from moderate to severe and debilitating embarrassment and anxiety to economic damage, such as being unable to find work because their character has been so hurt that employers fail to see the truth of who they are and accurately assess their fitness for a particular position. Recently, a jury awarded over seven million dollars to a former Penn State assistant football coach after they found that the university had defamed him. The man had given testimony which helped prosecutors charge Jerry Sandusky with child molestation.

The former assistant coach claimed that the president of the university released a defamatory statement against him on the day that Sandusky was charged with child molestation. The harm continued as he incurred economic damages in connection with being removed from his job and other damages as the retaliation continued and as school administrators misled him by promising him that they would take appropriate action against Sandusky after he voiced his concerns to them.

In response to the allegations of harm, counsel for the university claimed that it was public opinion and national media coverage that damaged the former assistant coach’s reputation and not any action by the university. Counsel for the university also claimed that it was the former assistant coach’s lack of contacts within the coaching profession and lack of a national reputation that stood in the way of him finding alternate employment. It is not difficult to see that regardless of whether the former assistant coach had contacts within the profession and a national reputation that those resources might not have helped him much in finding a new job after the defamatory statement against him by the university was published all over the place by the national news media.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Protecting the Rights of Mississippi Whistleblowers 

Whistleblowers are essential to keeping companies and institutions honest. If people do not take the risk and come forward when their employer is doing something wrong, the wrong will likely continue, undiscovered, and people could be harmed. If you feel as though you experienced unfair treatment at the hands of your employer or former employer after you exposed violations of the law, you might be able to recover damages through the whistleblower claims process. If defamation of your character was a part of the retaliatory actions that your employer took against you, it is possible that you could recover for that harm, too. The Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC can help you navigate the whistleblower claims process with the aim of obtaining financial recovery for any losses and damages that you may have experienced as a result of your actions.  If you have questions about a whistleblower case, please call the Mississippi Whistleblower attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC today at 1 (601) 790-1505 to arrange a free, initial consultation.

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