Qui tam

In common law, a writ of qui tam is a writ through which private individuals who assist a prosecution can receive for themselves all or part of the damages or financial penalties recovered by the government as a result of the prosecution. Its name is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur, meaning "[he] who sues in this matter for the king as well as for himself." The writ fell into disuse in England and Wales following the Common Informers Act 1951 but remains current in the United States under the False Claims Act, et seq., which allows a private individual, or "whistleblower" (or relator), with knowledge of past or present fraud committed against the federal government to bring suit on its behalf. There are also qui tam provisions in regarding arming vessels against friendly nations; regarding violating Indian protection laws; regarding the removal of undersea treasure from the Florida coast to foreign nations; and regarding false marking. In February 2011, the qui tam provision regarding false marking was held to be unconstitutional by a U.S. District Court, and in September of that year, the enactment of the Leahy–Smith America Invents Act effectively removed qui tam remedies from § 292. The historical antecedents of qui tam statutes lie in Roman and Anglo-Saxon law. Roman criminal prosecutions were typically initiated by private citizens (delatores) and beginning no later than the Lex Pedia, it became common for Roman criminal statutes to offer a portion of the defendant's forfeited property to the initiator of the prosecution as a reward. Forerunners of qui tam actions also occurred in Anglo-Saxon England; in the year 656, Wihtred of Kent issued a decree that a Sabbath-breaker would "forfeit his healsfang, and the man who informs against him shall have half the fine, and [the profits arising from] the labour." The first qui tam statutes were enacted by the English Parliament in the fourteenth century, some 250 years after the Norman Conquest.