There are many different specialist areas that defense attorneys work in, and it is important to ensure that you are engaging the services of an attorney whose specialism aligns with your case. Most legal firms will maintain a team of lawyers with different specialist areas and should be able to pair you up with someone whose area of expertise matches the field in which your legal troubles fall.
In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the main fields in which defense attorneys can specialize. These are all terms you may see on a law firm’s website, and below, we will introduce you to what they actually mean and how they may align with your particular legal problems. With this primer, you will be able to find a lawyer who is equipped to defend you as well as possible!
Healthcare Compliance Lawyers
Every day, general practitioners and experts in all fields of medicine encounter legal and regulatory concerns. As a field concerned with safety and saving lives, complying with important safety legislation is vital, but it can take a huge amount of time and effort, particularly when things are not running as smoothly as you might like.
While most doctors are concerned with HIPAA compliance and limiting their risk of medical malpractice liability, these are, unfortunately, only a tiny part of the larger universe of legal challenges confronting doctors in all areas of practice. Compliance with federal healthcare programs (such as Medicare and Medicaid) is also critical, and even minor things like contracts with vendors and suppliers might sometimes result in federal, civil, or even, in rare cases, criminal penalties.
A qualified lawyer can assist you if you are a doctor with issues regarding your legal requirements or if you are facing an audit, inquiry, ethical complaint, or medical malpractice lawsuit. Your medical license is the one thing you really can’t afford to lose, and a specialist lawyer for healthcare compliance will do everything they can to ensure that you maintain your right to practice medicine, even when things look impossible.
SEC Whistleblower Lawyers
Federal whistleblower laws are essential in the government’s efforts to safeguard the public while avoiding fraud, waste, and abuse. These statutes safeguard government employees, private-sector employees, and those who choose to come forward.
These legal structures are designed to provide financial rewards to whistleblowers in addition to shielding them from reprisal from those they are informing on. Compensation awards awarded under federal whistleblower provisions can often comprise very large sums of money.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States, for example, gives whistleblower payments ranging from $100,000 to $300,000, although it has granted countless awards in the tens of millions of dollars or more throughout the years.
The process of submitting a whistleblowing claim and then obtaining the money for it is a long and complex one. There are many hoops to jump through, and it can be an exhausting and overwhelming process for the claimant: federal bureaucracy is a vast and complex system that can be difficult to navigate.
Having a professional lawyer specializing in SEC whistleblower defense can make a huge difference to the ease of the process and your odds of successfully claiming compensation.
CFTC Whistleblower Lawyers
The Whistleblower Program of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was established in 2014 and is still a relatively unknown service that few people take advantage of. The CFTC gets much fewer whistleblower claims than the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other organizations, which creates chances for those who have knowledge to share.
Although it is a relatively new program, the CFTC’s Whistleblower Program has already rewarded whistleblowers with $330 million. In addition to whistleblower pay, the program includes confidentiality and anti-retaliation safeguards. As a consequence, individuals not only stand to earn large sums of money by sharing information but also can feel safe in doing so without fear of retaliation from the companies on whom the whistle is being blown.
In order to earn a payout for whistleblowing, individuals with insider knowledge need to meet a range of very stringent criteria. Just turning up with information is not enough to guarantee pay, and it can be quite difficult to ensure that you meet the right requirements.
That means you will need strong legal support from a CFTC whistleblower attorney from Oberheiden P.C. or similar firms. A CFTC whistleblower lawyer is familiar with the ins and outs of the program and can ensure that your case is constructed to meet every single one of the criteria for payment.
False Claims Lawyers
The False Claims Act is a legal statute that applies to any individual or corporation that directly or indirectly contracts with and receives payment from the United States government for services. It makes anybody or any corporation liable who willfully submits or causes to be filed a false or fraudulent claim with the objective of obtaining money or approval from a government office or agency.
This means that any company that attempts to defraud the government by overcharging for goods or services in a government contract can face strict legal penalties for this dishonesty.
Knowingly submitting a false or fraudulent claim might entail either real knowledge or a failure to exercise reasonable diligence. In other words, a False Claims Act violation is established if a business or individual can be expected to have known that it was invoicing the government incorrectly.
These penalties can be enormous, often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and an unfair accusation can devastate an individual or a small business. A false claims lawyer can help to protect you from undue government interference and false accusations, ensuring that your business can continue to function.
IRS Audit Attorneys
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits around one million federal income tax returns each year. While the IRS performs random audits, it also conducts targeted audits in response to what appear to be suspicious files.
If you are being audited by the IRS, you will have to defend yourself regardless of the reason for the audit because an unfavorable audit finding can result in significant liability and the potential for prosecution.
When confronted with an IRS audit, developing and implementing a strategic defense begins with determining which concerns (if any) must be addressed. A professional IRS audit attorney can help you prepare all of your documentation and build a case if necessary.
