{"id":71,"date":"2007-06-22T05:16:56","date_gmt":"2007-06-22T05:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whistleblowerlawyerblog.com\/2007\/06\/retaliation_against_whistleblo.html"},"modified":"2021-06-11T17:54:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T21:54:21","slug":"retaliation_against_whistleblo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/whistleblower-blog\/retaliation_against_whistleblo\/","title":{"rendered":"Retaliation Against Whistleblowers and Witnesses in Federal Proceedings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While there are many specific retaliation provisions unique to claims filed under the False Claims Act, with the Equal Opportunity Commission and\/or arising out of Sarbanes-Oxley provisions, all of which protect informant employees from being retaliated against by their employer, a little known fact is that there is a general statute (42 U.S.C. \u00a7 1985) which makes it unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to &#8220;deter&#8221; a witness from testifying in Federal Court.  This statute also makes it unlawful to &#8220;retaliate&#8221; against a witness for having so testified.  The &#8220;deterrence&#8221; provision makes it unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to deter by force, intimidation or threat, any witness in any court in the United States from testifying to any matter pending therein freely, fully and truthfully.   The &#8220;retaliation&#8221; provision makes it unlawful to injure a witness on account of his having testified in a court in the United States.  Conspiracy to retaliate consists of two or more people acting in concert to retaliate against a witness for having testified in a judicial proceeding and injury as a result of the conspiracy, and an nexus between the act of testifying and the conspiracy.  <\/p>\n<p>\tThe typical case where this statute might apply is one where a company employee testifies against the employer in a federal proceeding and then is terminated as a result of the testimony.  Even a threat to take retaliatory actions against a witness should they provide truthful testimony is actionable under this statute.  Thus, if a company employee is testifying before a federal body and is &#8220;advised, counseled or warned&#8221; that should they testify unfavorably to the company they may be subject to reprisal, this would be an actionable case under this statute.<\/p>\n<p>\tIn the United States Supreme Court of Haddle v. Garrison, 525 U.S. 121, 119 S. Ct. 489, 148 L. Ed. 2d 502 (1998), (a case arising in Georgia which involved this firm) the Supreme Court held that third party interference even with an &#8220;at will&#8221; employment relationship states a claim for relief under \u00a7 1985.  The Court reasoned that because &#8220;the gist of the wrong at which \u00a7 1985 is directed is not deprivation of property, but intimidation or retaliation against witnesses in federal court proceedings,&#8221; the loss of at will employment can injure a plaintiff for purposes of the statute.  Thus, even in an &#8220;at will&#8221; state such as Georgia, if an employee is intimidated by an employer in such a way as to interfere with their ability to provide testimony against the employer in a federal court context, then such a case is actionable notwithstanding the restrictions of a state &#8220;at will&#8221; employment doctrine.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/whistleblower-blog\/retaliation_against_whistleblo\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Retaliation Against Whistleblowers and Witnesses in Federal Proceedings\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While there are many specific retaliation provisions unique to claims filed under the False Claims Act, with the Equal Opportunity Commission and\/or arising out of Sarbanes-Oxley provisions, all of which protect informant employees from being retaliated against by their employer, a little known fact is that there is a general statute (42 U.S.C. \u00a7 1985) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retaliation-claims"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Retaliation Against Whistleblowers and Witnesses in Federal Proceedings &#8212; Whistleblower Lawyer Blog &#8212; June 22, 2007<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While there are many specific retaliation provisions unique to claims filed under the False Claims Act, with the Equal Opportunity Commission and\/or &#8212; June 22, 2007\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finchmccranie.com\/whistleblower-blog\/retaliation_against_whistleblo\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Retaliation Against Whistleblowers and Witnesses in Federal Proceedings &#8212; Whistleblower Lawyer Blog &#8212; June 22, 2007\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"While there are many specific retaliation provisions unique to claims filed under the False Claims Act, with the Equal Opportunity Commission and\/or &#8212; June 22, 2007\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Sullivan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Retaliation Against Whistleblowers and Witnesses in Federal Proceedings &#8212; 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