Alderson began to research the federal False Claims Act, also known as the whistleblower law. Qui tam, a legal provision in the act, allows a citizen to file a lawsuit on behalf of the government. If the government found merit in his suit, the government would then decide to join it.

Employing the same thorough methods that had made him a good accountant, Alderson spent hours reviewing hospital documents for the case during the nights and weekends. Having hired no lawyers to represent him in the whistleblower suit, Alderson also spent hours holed up at the law library at the University of Montana.

Family time was limited. The research essentially became a second job for Alderson, Connie said, and the demands of the case made it hard for her to stay positive.

"At times I got resentful," Connie admitted.

In the meantime, Connie and Justin joined Jim in Dillon in March 1991. The family was there for five years, and they weren't particularly happy ones, at least for Connie.

"When moves are your choice, they can be fun," she explained. "But moving out of desperation takes the fun out of (it)."

But more moves followed. Some were career moves, and some were motivated by a need to be close to a major airport so that Alderson could more easily travel to Washington, D.C., for the case. After Dillon, Jim and Connie moved to Miles City; Boise, Idaho; Vancouver, Wash.; Coos Bay, Ore.; and Plano, Texas. They also frequently moved in each town from one rental unit to the next. In all, they counted 14 different addresses.

"It was an emotional rollercoaster," Connie added. "Our everyday lives were affected."

Whistleblower shuffle

After receiving the cost reports from Quorum and carefully researching other cases, Alderson wrote a complaint and filed his whistleblower lawsuit in January 1993 at the federal courthouse in Butte. He had no idea whether the government would decide to join the suit, so when government officials contacted him in May to request more time to research the case, Alderson was simply grateful that they hadn't said no.

A week later, government officials told Alderson they were going to issue subpoenas, and in August he flew to Washington, D.C., to meet with nearly two dozen lawyers and other officials, including the head of Medicare, to tell them what he knew.

Hearing that Medicare, the government's healthcare program for the elderly, was being damaged by fraudulent claims wasn't warmly received.

"It was like walking into a bad cocktail party," Alderson said. "Everyone was looking down. No one wanted to make eye contact."

Several months later, he decided to settle the wrongful discharge action so he could focus on the whistleblower suit. And, having spent the first year of the whistleblower suit without a lawyer, in November he decided to hire a law firm in Kansas City to represent him.

Still, the case was slow going because there was no precedent for it.

In 1995, frustrated that little had happened, Alderson decided to switch law firms. Though he had a great deal of respect for the Kansas City firm, he had heard of a lawyer who he thought would be perfect for the case: Stephen Meagher, who worked for Phillips & Cohen, a respected San Francisco firm that specialized in qui tam cases.

"I had no idea what they would do, and always thought it was kind of surprising (that Meagher's firm) took the case," Alderson said. "As it turns out, they had always wondered why no one had ever taken the case."

"I have seen few plaintiffs as prepared, and as prepared to be relentless, as Alderson," Meagher later told The New York Times. "He made a very persuasive case."

Return to regular view	Text-only              Email this article	Published: 11/27/2007