The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled recently that a plaintiff claiming that her employer retaliated against her for allegedly “blowing the whistle” under the federal False Claims Act (FCA) must prove that her protected activity was the but-for cause of the challenged employment action.
The court’s ruling in DiFiore v. CSL Behring, LLC, No. 16-4297 (3d Cir. January 3, 2018), is helpful to employers because it holds an FCA whistleblower to the same relatively high burden of proof standard that is used in many other employment-related retaliation cases. Plaintiff here argued unsuccessfully that she should only have to meet the more lenient “motivating factor” or “mixed motive” burden of proof scheme that applies in some other kinds of employment-related lawsuits.
A copy of the Third Circuit’s ruling in DiFiore is available here.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.