of military expansion at a time when there were many stories of defense contractor price gouging. Since then, qui tam provisions have helped recover more than $48 billion in taxpayer money. The act of filing such actions is informally called "whistleblowing." Persons filing under the Act stand to receive a portion (usually about 15-25 percent) of any recovered damages. The Act provides a legal tool to counteract fraudulent billings turned in to the federal government. Claims under the law have been filed by persons with insider knowledge of false claims which have typically involved health care, military, or other government spending programs. The False Claims Act allows a private person, known as a "relator," to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the United States, where the private detective or other person has information that the named defendant has knowingly submitted or caused the submission of false or fraudulent claims to the United States. In order to qualify as a "relator", pursuant to the Supreme Court's decision in Rockwell International Corp. v. United States, in order to bring an action that is based upon publicly disclosed information the person bringing the claim must legally qualify as an "original source." The relator need not have been personally harmed by the defendant's conduct; instead, the relator is recognized as receiving legal standing to sue by way of a "partial assignment" to the relator of the injury to the government caused by the alleged fraud. The information must not be public knowledge, unless the relator qualifies as an "original source." The False Claims Act provides incentive to relators by granting them between 15% and 25% of any award or settlement amount. In addition, the statute provides an award of the relator's attorneys' fees, making qui tam actions a popular topic for the plaintiff's bar. An individual bringing suit pro se — that is, without the representation of a lawyer — may not bring a qui tam action under the False Claims Act. Once a relator brings suit on behalf of the government, the Department of Justice, in conjunction with a U.S. Attorney for the district in which the suit was filed, have the option to intervene in the suit. If the government does intervene, it will notify the company or person being sued that a claim has been filed. Qui tam actions are filed under seal, which has to be partially lifted by the