Vertical guide · Updated May 2026

Qui tam attorney time tracking: False Claims Act fee records for relator's counsel

Q: Why is the sealed-investigation period the highest-risk phase for FCA time records?

Under 31 U.S.C. § 3730(b)(2), a qui tam complaint is filed under seal while the government investigates, typically for 1–3 years (often extended). During this sealed period the attorney's work — compiling the relator's disclosure statement, producing supplemental evidence to DOJ/agency investigators, responding to government document requests, preparing the relator for investigative interviews — is the densest documentation phase of the entire case. Courts have held that pre-unsealing hours are recoverable under § 3730(d) if they are reasonably related to the litigation. Attorneys who reconstruct those hours three years later from memory, without contemporaneous records, face the same Hensley records-quality discount as any other fee-petition applicant. The sealed period creates a structural records problem: the work happened in isolation, the billing system was not running for a paying client, and the only evidence of time spent is what the attorney wrote down at the time.

Q: How does government intervention status affect the fee-petition record?

When the government intervenes under § 3730(c)(1), the relator steps to the side of the litigation and the government takes control of the case. The relator's counsel continues to represent the relator's interests (protecting the relator share, monitoring the settlement, advising on § 3730(d) fees) but their active litigation role diminishes. Courts have awarded fees for post-intervention work that served the relator's distinct interests — attending depositions, reviewing the proposed settlement, arguing the relator share and fee petition. Each of those events requires contemporaneous records because they are discrete billable activities occurring months or years after the case was filed. When the government declines and the relator's counsel must prosecute the FCA case independently, the full litigation record burden applies: complaint drafting, discovery, summary judgment, and trial are all fully recoverable but require complete contemporaneous records with per-task attribution.

Qui tam FCA cases run 2–5 years from sealed complaint to resolution. Relator's counsel who cannot produce contemporaneous records for the sealed investigation period — the 1–3 years of DOJ coordination, relator disclosure-statement preparation, and investigative-interview support before the complaint is unsealed — risks losing the § 3730(d) fee award on the hours that accumulated when no client billing system was running.

TL;DR

ClaimHour captures phone calls with the relator and DOJ investigators, document-edit sessions on disclosure statements and supplemental submissions, email-compose time, and calendar events for investigative interviews — passively, from the date of engagement. For FCA relator's counsel who bill from QuickBooks without a PMS, that means contemporaneous records covering the sealed investigation period, the unsealing-and-intervention phase, and the post-settlement fee petition, with no reconstruction gap. $29–$59/mo. No PMS required.

The False Claims Act fee-shifting framework for relator's counsel

31 U.S.C. § 3730(d) provides two fee-shifting paths for qui tam relator's counsel. Under § 3730(d)(1), when the government intervenes and the action proceeds, the defendant is liable for the relator's reasonable expenses, attorneys' fees, and costs. Under § 3730(d)(2), when the government declines to intervene and the relator proceeds independently, the court awards reasonable expenses and attorneys' fees from the proceeds of the action if the relator prevails.

In both scenarios, the lodestar method under Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424 (1983), governs: reasonable hours multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. Courts applying Hensley to § 3730(d) fee petitions use the same records-quality analysis as in civil rights and employment fee petitions — block billing draws percentage cuts, vague descriptors draw specific-task reduction, and reconstructed time from memory draws the inference that hours may be inflated. The relator's counsel who wants full recovery on a multi-year FCA case needs contemporaneous records from the day the representation begins.

Pre-unsealing hours and recoverability

The most litigated question in FCA fee petitions is whether pre-unsealing hours are recoverable. Courts have generally held that hours reasonably expended in preparation of the complaint and in developing the evidence that enabled government intervention are recoverable under § 3730(d). The key word is "reasonably" — and the standard for assessing reasonableness is the same as in any other fee petition: specific task descriptions, time attributions that match the work product produced, and no apparent inflation or duplication.

An attorney who can point to specific call records showing a 45-minute conversation with the relator on a particular date, followed by a document-edit session on the disclosure statement the same afternoon, has contemporaneous records that survive Hensley scrutiny. An attorney who reconstructed those hours three years later from a calendar notation reading "relator call" has the same reconstruction problem as any other fee-petition applicant with inadequate records.

The three phases of an FCA case and their records challenges

Phase 1 — Sealed investigation (12–36 months)

From the filing of the sealed complaint under 31 U.S.C. § 3730(b)(2) through unsealing, the relator's attorney works in parallel with the government's investigation. The work in this phase includes: drafting and revising the relator's disclosure statement required by § 3730(b)(2); transmitting supplemental evidence to DOJ Civil Division attorneys and relevant agency inspectors general; preparing the relator for investigative interviews with federal investigators; monitoring court orders extending the seal; and advising the relator on whistleblower retaliation risks under § 3730(h) if the relator continues working at the defendant organization during the investigation.

The structural billing problem in this phase is that no client invoice is being sent. The relator typically agreed to a contingency arrangement against the relator's share under § 3730(d)(1), so there is no billing cycle creating a natural contemporaneous record-keeping discipline. Attorneys who work this phase for two years without a billing system often discover at fee-petition time that they have calendar entries and email threads but no hour-by-hour record of time spent.

In a typical complex healthcare FCA case (Medicare/Medicaid upcoding, pharmaceutical kickbacks), the sealed-phase attorney time ranges from 200 to 600 hours. At a $350/hr billing rate, that is $70,000 to $210,000 of fee exposure — the portion of the § 3730(d)(1) petition most vulnerable to reconstruction-based reduction.

Phase 2 — Intervention or declination decision

When the government makes its intervention decision, the relator's counsel role shifts. Under § 3730(c)(1) intervention, the government controls the case and the relator's counsel transitions to a monitoring and protecting role: attending key depositions, reviewing the draft settlement agreement, arguing the relator's share percentage under the § 3730(d)(1) formula, and preparing and litigating the fee petition itself.

Under declination, the relator's counsel must independently prosecute the entire FCA case: answering complaints, conducting discovery, opposing dispositive motions, and if necessary trying the case. The disclosure-to-resolution timeline in declined cases averages longer than in government-intervened cases and requires the full litigation record burden with contemporaneous records across every phase.

Phase 3 — Settlement and fee petition

Most FCA cases resolve by settlement. The settlement covers both the government's damages recovery (which drives the relator's share calculation) and, separately, the relator's counsel's fees under § 3730(d). The fee petition is submitted with a declaration from the attorney, time records, and a supporting brief applying the Hensley lodestar framework. The hours at greatest risk in the petition are the sealed-phase hours — because they were incurred years before the petition was filed and require contemporaneous records to survive scrutiny.

What passive capture records look like in an FCA practice

Relator contact calls

The relator calls throughout the sealed period — to report new documents found, to ask about the investigation's progress, to discuss retaliation concerns, to prepare for an upcoming investigator meeting. These calls typically run 20–45 minutes and occur once or twice per month across a 2–3 year investigation. At 24 calls per year for two years, at 30 minutes average, that is 24 hours of relator contact time per year that almost never appears in a reconstructed time sheet. iOS call metadata captures each call: duration, counterparty number, direction. The evening digest shows each call in the matter's log with timestamps ready for fee-petition export.

DOJ and agency investigator coordination

Civil Division attorneys and agency inspectors general contact relator's counsel to request supplemental documents, schedule the relator's interview, clarify points in the disclosure statement, and communicate the government's assessment of the case. These calls and email exchanges are the core of the sealed-phase attorney work — and they are the records most often missing from fee petitions. Phone call metadata captures the call duration and the DOJ/agency counterparty. Email-compose time captures the drafting time for supplemental document transmittals and investigation support correspondence.

Disclosure statement drafting and revision

The § 3730(b)(2) disclosure statement is the evidentiary foundation of the government's investigation. Initial drafts run 20–50 pages; supplemental submissions in response to government inquiries add another 10–30 pages each. Document-edit focus-duration events capture every session during which the disclosure statement document is open in Word or Pages — multiple drafting sessions over several weeks, each captured with timestamps. In a complex healthcare or defense-contractor FCA case, disclosure statement preparation accounts for 40–120 hours of total attorney time.

Calendar events for investigative interviews and court dates

The relator's investigative interview with federal agents is the most time-intensive single event in the sealed phase: preparation typically runs 4–8 hours and the interview itself 2–6 hours. Calendar event attribution captures both the preparation block and the interview day. Post-unsealing court appearances, settlement conferences, and fee-petition hearings are similarly captured as calendar events in the matter's record.

How ClaimHour fits FCA qui tam practice

If you are relator's counsel handling FCA qui tam cases under § 3730(d) — with a 2–5 year timeline from sealed complaint to fee petition — ClaimHour's passive capture layer builds the contemporaneous record from the first day of representation. No billing cycle discipline required during the sealed phase. No reconstruction from memory at fee-petition time. Join the waitlist and we'll email when early access opens.

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