WOLF AI field guide
FCA and qui tam workflow glossary.
This glossary explains the terms WOLF AI uses to describe its early-stage software and the plaintiff-side FCA workflows it is intended to support. It is educational, not legal advice.
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Written and maintained by the WOLF AI product team and checked against the public sources cited on this page. It has not been reviewed by outside counsel, and it is not legal advice.
What do the numbers say?
The Department of Justice reports that whistleblowers filed 1,297 qui tam lawsuits in fiscal year 2025, the highest number in a single year and a sharp rise on the previous record of 980 set in 2024. Those filings drove more than $5.3 billion in reported settlements and judgments.
Source: DOJ: False Claims Act settlements and judgments exceed $6.8B in fiscal year 2025
Under 31 U.S.C. § 3730(d), a relator receives at least 15 percent but not more than 25 percent of the proceeds when the government intervenes, and not less than 25 percent and not more than 30 percent when it declines and the relator proceeds alone. The Department of Justice describes the typical range as 15 to 30 percent.
A qui tam complaint is filed in camera and, under 31 U.S.C. § 3730(b)(2), "shall remain under seal for at least 60 days" and is not served on the defendant until the court so orders. Courts routinely extend that period, so the confidentiality obligation on the record set is measured in months or years, not weeks.
Who is this workflow for?
People new to this vocabulary: engineers joining a legal-tech team, relators trying to follow their own case, and anyone reading the rest of this site who wants the terms defined once.
When it is the wrong tool. These definitions are simplified. They are not a substitute for the statute, the rules, current case law, or counsel, and they do not cover jurisdictional or procedural nuance.
What documents and inputs do you need?
- The statutory text at 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729–3733.
- The public DOJ description of the False Claims Act and its annual statistics.
- The workflow terms used elsewhere on this site.
How does the workflow actually run?
- 1.FCA: the federal False Claims Act, principally codified at 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729–3733.
- 2.Qui tam: an FCA action brought by a private person on behalf of the United States under the statute.
- 3.Relator: the private person who brings a qui tam action.
- 4.Seal: the period during which a filed qui tam complaint is not public while the government investigates.
- 5.Intervention: the government’s decision to take over the primary responsibility for an FCA action.
- 6.Chronology: an ordered, editable set of events tied to supporting sources.
- 7.Claims mapping: a structured connection among allegations, evidence, actors, transactions, and requirements.
- 8.Damages workup: an organized candidate population, with assumptions and exclusions, prepared as input for expert analysis.
- 9.Source-linked output: generated work product that points to a document, page, and passage.
- 10.Human validation: review in which a qualified person checks, edits, rejects, or approves an AI-assisted output.
What does this look like in practice?
Illustrative scenario
Illustrative only — how the terms connect in one sentence.
- A relator brings a qui tam action under the FCA, and the complaint is filed under seal.
- Counsel builds a chronology from the record and maps each proposed allegation to the passages that support it.
- A damages workup organizes the candidate population and its assumptions for an expert.
- Every output is source-linked, and every one of them is validated by a human before it is used.
What this does not show. The sequence above is a vocabulary aid, not a description of how any particular case proceeds.
What do you get out, and who reviews it?
- A shared vocabulary for reading the rest of this site.
- Pointers to the primary sources, which govern over any summary here.
Where does this approach break down?
- Definitions are simplified and do not cover every jurisdictional or procedural nuance.
- The glossary does not create an attorney-client relationship or provide legal advice.
- Use current statutes, rules, cases, and counsel for legal decisions.
Common questions
What does qui tam mean literally?
It is short for a Latin phrase describing a suit brought by a private person on the government’s behalf as well as their own. The mechanism is set out at 31 U.S.C. § 3730.
What is the seal period?
A filed qui tam complaint is initially not public while the government investigates. Duration and extensions are governed by the statute and the court; counsel handles that.
Does intervention mean the case is strong?
It means the government has decided to take over primary responsibility for the action. Reading anything further into it is a legal judgment, not a definition.