Justin T. Berger

BURLINGAME - Justin T. Berger grew up focused on social justice and the little guy. He worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador and as an AmeriCorps volunteer in San Diego. Now, as a plaintiff-side advocate for health care whistle-blowers at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, he has found his niche.
"In law school, when I learned about the power of the civil justice system, I knew the kind of work I wanted to do," he said. He followed school with a clerkship for U.S. District Judge Susan Y. Illston of San Francisco. "A wonderful judge and mentor," Berger said.
He's been at Cotchett since 2005. In February 2022, he and a colleague won an uncommon False Claims Act jury trial and an $8.1 million damages judgment on behalf of whistle-blower clients who alleged that the defendant fraudulently billed Medicare and overcharged taxpayers for thousands of never-completed sonography services. U.S. ex rel. Tiffany Montcrieff et al. v. Peripheral Vascular Associates PA, 5:17-cv-00317 (W.D. Tex., filed April 12, 2017).
"This was about money and waste," Berger said. "It's extremely rare to go to trial in a False Claims Act case. Here we had a population of extremely sick people with diabetes and vascular disease and a company that was not providing complete services -- but was billing as if they were. The defense's attempt to downplay the importance of this fell completely flat with the jury."
The defense's closing argument likened the situation to the government hiring a company to paint a building and the company using the wrong brand of paint. "My rebuttal pointed out that this is not about paint, and I could see in the jurors' eyes that they completely got it."
Last year, Berger and colleagues settled for $37.5 million in a whistle-blower case involving a fraud and kickback scheme. It was believed to be the largest settlement over kickbacks allegedly paid to a single physician, a California cardiologist. U.S. ex rel. Martin Mansukhani v. Prime Healthcare Services Inc., et al., 5:18-cv- 00371 (C.D. Cal., filed Feb. 21, 2018).
The complaint alleged that Prime, a for-profit hospital chain, and its founder, Dr. Prem Reddy, paid kickbacks by buying the cardiologist's practice and surgical center for more than they were worth.
"People get creative about disguising kickbacks," Berger said, "and kickbacks are a huge problem in health care. This hospital overpaid for the medical practice because they were really paying for that physician's surgical referrals."
Berger said his work leaves him feeling "passionate and righteous" about halting the abuse of taxpayer funds. "These dollars are supposed to go to the most vulnerable," he said.